LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 549 106 ft 




1855 
DOBELL COLLECTION 



l 



THE CASTILIAN. 



THE CASTILIAN 



AN HISTORICAL TEAGEDY. 



IN FIVE ACTS. 



bSr f«^^ 



"He for God only, she for God in him." — Milton. 



LONDON : 
EDWAED MOXON, DOYEE STEEET. 

1853. 






LONDON: 
IRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. 



205449 
. '13 



PREFACE. 



The following Drama is founded on the insur- 
rection of the Commons of Castile against the 
Regency of the Cardinal Adrian, to whom the 
Emperor Charles V. committed the government 
of his Spanish dominions, during his long absence 
from them in the time occupied by his visits to 
Germany, England, and Flanders, which followed 
his acquisition of the imperial crown. The narra- 
tive of Robertson, which will be found at the 
commencement of the Third Book of his " History 
of Charles Y.," appeared to the Author to present 
some elements of dramatic interest superior to those 
which the progress and the fate of popular insur- 
rections usually involve. Although the qualities of 
the leading persons of this movement are but faintly 
indicated by the historian, he has afforded glimpses 



vi PREFACE. 

of the character of its leader, Don John de Padilla, 
which suggest the idea of a soldier deeply imbued 
with religious faith and devotional feeling — of a 
leader of rebellion of mind essentially conservative 
and loyal — which invited an attempt to fill up the 
outline of his story with circumstances which might, 
in some degree, reconcile the apparent contradic- 
tion between his principles and his actions. The 
speech imputed to him in his last moments by 
Eobertson, on a fellow- sufferer's expressing indig- 
nation on hearing him proclaimed a traitor, " That 
yesterday was the time to have displayed the spirit 
of gentlemen ; this day to die with the meekness 
of Christians," and the two letters which, imme- 
diately before his execution, he addressed to his wife 
and to the city of Toledo,* suggest an example of 

* Both, letters will be found hi a note of Robertson's History. The 
following is the letter addressed to the city of Toledo : — 

"To thee, the Crown of Spain, and the light of the whole world, 
free from the time of the mighty Goths ; to thee, who by shedding the 
blood of strangers as well as thy own blood, hast recovered liberty for 
thy self and thy neighbouring cities, thy legitimate son Juan de 
Padilla gives information how by the blood of his body thy ancient 
victories may be refreshed. If fate has not permitted my actions to 
be placed among your successfid and celebrated exploits, the fault 
hath been in my ill fortune, not in my good will. This I request of 
thee as a mother to accept, since God hath given me nothing more to 



PREFACE, vii 

Christian heroism far beyond the ordinary qualities 
of chivalrous valour — requiring far higher powers 
than the Author can command to do them justice, 
but capable, even in a feeble sketch, of exciting an 
honest sympathy. His story does not want one 
common element in the history of popular leaders. 
Like many other great men invoked by the pas- 
sions of the multitude to heroic action, he was 
forsaken for a man of higher aristocratic claim 
and far lower desert — Don Pedro de Griron — and 
was recalled to the post of danger when it was too 
late to repair the consequences of the ingratitude 
of the insurgents, and the indiscretion of their 
temporary idol. 

" The abstract and brief chronicle " of Eobertson 



leave for thy sake than that which I am now to relinquish. I am 
more solicitous about thy good opinion than about my own life. The 
shiftings of Fortune, which never stands still, are many. But this I 
see, with infinite consolation, that I, the least of thy children, suffer 
death for thee, and that thou hast nursed at thy breasts such as may 
take vengeance for my wrongs. Many tongues will relate the manner 
of my death, of which I am still ignorant, though I know it to be 
near. My end will testify what was my desire. My soul I recommend 
to thee, as the patroness of Christianity. Of my body I say nothing, 
for it is not mine. I can write nothing more — for, at this very 
moment, I find the knife at my throat, with greater dread of thy 
displeasure than apprehension of my own pain." 



viii PREFACE. 

also suggests the character of a woman, strongly 
contrasted in some respects with that of the hero, 
in his wife Donna Maria Pacheco, whose un- 
bounded ambition was refined by an equally un- 
bounded admiration of her husband. The audacity 
with which, after Padilla's recal to power, when the 
troops refused to follow him without payment of 
their arrears, she seized on the treasures of the 
shrines in the Cathedral of Toledo, with the show 
of sorrow — (she, with her retinue of ladies " march- 
ing to the church in solemn procession, with tears 
in their eyes, beating their breasts, and falling on 
their knees to implore the pardon of the saints 
whose shrines they were about to violate") — 
seemed capable of being presented in contrast with 
the disinterested piety and heroism of Padilla, 
without any violation of the probability of their 
true relations, and of exhibiting in some variety 
the aspects of his more simple character. 

But the incident which seemed to the Author 
most capable of producing an interest less common 
than that of an ordinary tale of political conspiracy, 



PREFACE. ix 

is the temporary resuscitation of the melancholy 
Joanna, the mother of the Emperor, from a state 
of deplorable inanity, to confer for a short time 
upon the revolt of the Commons the grace of her 
title and authority — thus giving the sanction of 
loyal sentiments to the popular cause. This re- 
markable incident is thus glanced at by Eobertson, 
after stating the capture of her person at Tor- 
desillas, where she resided in seclusion : " Padilla 
" waited immediately on the Queen, and accosting 
" her with that profound respect she exacted from 
" the few persons she deigned to admit into her 
" presence, acquainted her at large with the miser- 
" able condition of her Castilian subjects under the 
"government of her son; who, being destitute of 
" experience himself, permitted his foreign minis- 
" ters to treat them with such rigour as had obliged 
" them to take arms in defence of the liberties of 
" their country. The Queen, as if she had been 
"awakened out of a lethargy, expressed great 
" astonishment at what he said, and told him that, 
" as she had never heard till that moment of the 



x PREFACE. 

" death of her father, or known the sufferings of 
" her people, no blame could be imputed to her ; 
" but thai* now she would take care to provide a 
" sufficient remedy ; ' and in the meantime,' added 
" she, ' let it be your concern to do what is neces- 
" ' sary for the public welfare.' Padilla, too eager 
"in forming a conclusion agreeable to his wishes, 
" mistook this lucid interval of reason for a perfect 
" return of that faculty ; and acquainting the Junta 
" with what had happened, advised them to remove 
"to Tordesillas and hold their meetings at that 
"place. This was instantly done; but though 
" Joanna received very graciously an address of the 
"Junta, beseeching her to take on herself the 
" government of the kingdom, and in token of her 
" compliance admitted all the deputies to kiss her 
"hand; though she was present at a tournament 
" held on that occasion, and seemed highly satisfied 
" with both these ceremonies, which were conducted 
"with great magnificence in order to please her, 
" she soon relapsed into her former melancholy, 
"and could never be brought, by argument or 



PREFACE. xi 

" entreaties, to sign any paper relating to the de- 
" spatch of business." The historian records the 
enthusiastic joy of the Castilians at the restoration 
of Isabella's daughter to the throne ; the use made 
by the insurgents of her authority ; and the dis- 
appearance of this brief apparition of royalty, when, 
betrayed by Griron's rashness, the Queen fell into 
the hands of the Regent, and sunk again into a 
state of imbecility, from which she never after- 
wards awoke ; leaving the cause of the revolted 
subjects of Castile destitute of the sanction given 
for a short time to their arms. 

The circumstances by which Joanna was sur- 
rounded give an interest to the aberrations of her 
intellect of a kind somewhat more elevated than 
usually attends the workings of mental disease. 
Her noble birth; her ill-fated marriage, preceded 
by a voyage of unexpected duration and extreme 
peril ; her passionate love of her reckless husband ; 
the solemn recognition by the Cortez at Toledo 
and Saragossa of her right to succeed the best and 
greatest of all queens in the crowns of Castile and 



xii PREFACE . 

Aragon; her renewed sea-peril in company with 
Philip, when the ship in which she was conveyed 
was struck by lightning in a tempest and cast on 
the English shore at Weymouth, after which the 
expectant sovereigns of Spain were entertained for 
three months at "Windsor by our Henry VII. ; her 
frantic pursuit of her husband to Flanders, and his 
final desertion of her when she had revenged herself 
by cutting off the golden locks of his Flemish mis- 
tress ; her devotion to his corpse, which she kept 
arrayed in pompous robes, secluded from all eyes 
but her own, and her conveyance of the body to 
Grenada by nocturnal journeys for interment ; and 
her long tearless grief; present, in her story, one 
of the saddest examples of calamity long endured 
in the midst of the appliances of greatness. They 
will be found scattered through the pages of one of 
the most delightful books in the world — Prescott's 
" History of the Eeign of Ferdinand and Isabella " 
— whence the allusions in the only scene upon 
which the writer has ventured to introduce this 
illustrious sufferer are chiefly drawn. 



PREFACE. xiii 

In attempting to weave the main incidents of 
this episode in the history of Charles V. into the 
structure of a drama, the Author has been obliged 
to adapt some of the localities of the events to the 
necessities of his own limited powers. He has 
therefore represented the residence of Joanna as 
at Avila, the original seat of the revolutionary 
government of the Holy Junta, instead of Tor- 
desillas, to which place they removed at Padilla's 
suggestion to attend her, and has transferred the 
scenes of Griron's disastrous command, and of 
Padilla's last struggle and death, to the neighbour- 
hood of Toledo — the birthplace of both Joanna and 
Padilla — and has represented those events as im- 
mediately connected in time, instead of being 
separated by a few weeks or possibly months ; and 
in some other respects (as in the death of Griron, 
who is dismissed to obscurity by Eobertson) he 
has deviated from the chronicle. If it had been his 
good fortune to possess and consult the work which 
has made Englishmen familiar with the glories of 
Spain — which, under the modest guise of a " Hand- 



xiv PREFACE. 

book," is history, statistics, and poetry — the hand- 
book of the student as well as of the traveller — he 
would have discovered that he was not far from the 
truth in representing the residence of Padilla in 
the vicinity of Toledo, but that he should have 
placed it within the city on a spot left vacant when 
it had been levelled by Charles V. after the in- 
surrection ; but he hopes that his fiction may be 
reconciled to Mr. Ford's truth, by the supposition 
that Padilla, besides his house in Toledo, had a 
villa in the suburbs. He has endeavoured to pre- 
serve the essential truth of the story as far as he 
had the means of ascertaining it, supplying such 
domestic incidents as seemed to him of not im- 
probable occurrence; and has attained the object 
of his utmost ambition if he has made some traits 
of greatness and goodness, which gleam in a piece 
of history (hitherto, in so far as he is aware, un- 
touched by a dramatist,) palpable to the mind of 
an indulgent reader. 



PERSONS REPRESENTED. 



MEN. 



The Cardinal Adrian, Regent of Castile, under the Emperor 

Charles V. 
Don Oliva de Gonsalvo, a Courtier of Adrian. 
Don Pedro de Giron, a Castilian Nobleman of the highest rank. 
The Marquis de Villena, Friend of Giron. 
Don Florez de Carillo, Nephew of Giron. 
Don John de Padilla, a Castilian Nobleman. 
The Marquis de Mondeiar, Brother of Padilla's Wife. 
Alphonso, a Youth, only Son of Padilla. 
Don Carlos de Tendilla, -. 
Don Nicholas de Ovando, [ Lilian Noblemen, leaders of the 

Popular Party in Toledo. 
Don Alvaro de Gomez, J 

Lopez, an old Servant, 
Florio, a Domestic Page, 

Members of the Holy Junta, Soldiers, Messengers, &c. &c. 



> Servants of Padilla. 



WOMEN. 

The Queen Joanna, Daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, and 
Mother of the Emperor. 

Donna Maria Pacheco, Wife of Padilla. 

Ladies attendant on the Queen Joanna. 

Time 1522. 



THE CASTILIAN, 



, * 



THE CASTILIAN. 



ACT I. 

Scene. — A Terrace in the Garden of the Mansion of Don 
John de Padilla, in the neighbourhood of Toledo, 
overlooking the City — in an Alcove, on one side, a Table 
with covers set for four persons — beyond the City a range 
of Mountains, through a gorge of which the Tagus flows 
— approaching Sunset As the ciwtain rises, Lopez, the 
old Servant, and Florio, a Page, are discovered arrang- 
ing the Table in the Alcove ; they come forward. 

FLORIO. 

Can this be all ? Is this the feast to grace 
The birthday of our master's only son — 
And such a son ? This simple fare prepared 
Only for four ? Well ! in my rustic home 
A birthday, even my own, though I am youngest 
Of many peasant children, fill'd our valley 
With mirth till nightfall. I believed the love 
Which doats on young Alphonso would find scope 

b2 



4 THE CASTILIAN. [act i. 

In such majestic feasting as would win 
Toledo's wonder, and set loose with joy 
The hearts of all our household. 

LOPEZ. 

Thoughtless child ! 
And yet I should not blame your careless age, 
That cannot guess the weight of such regard 
As fathers like our master bear their sons, 
Least noted when most prideful ; but no lack 
Of feasting will be ours ; though, thus apart, 
The parents and their son, without a guest 
Except our lady's brother, who partook 
The first great venture through the western seas, 
And since has lived as restless as the waves 
"With which he held long fellowship, will share 
This frugal banquet ; — we, in the hall, festoon' d 
With myrtles and full orange boughs, shall drain 
Cups without stint of generous wine, and keep 
The dance alive till midnight. 

FLORIO. 

Shall all dance ? 

LOPEZ. 

Unless you choose to play the looker-on ; 



scene i.] THE CASTILTAN. 

Even I — laugh, if you will — but there are seasons 
"When all who truly tasted youth resume it, 
And this is one of mine. 

FLOKIO. 

May a young servant 
Ask, without blame, if always, on this day, 
Our gracious master, who so often holds 
High festival with liberal pomp, contracts 
His wonted state ? 

LOPEZ. 

He has kept this birthday thus, 
Since a fair girl — half of his household's youth — 
Was taken hence. I have heard her parents tell 
How she drew after her such earnest thoughts 
As in this season, which renews their spring-time, 
Make them almost partakers of the home 
Where she awaits them. Lovely child ! she bore 
A regal but unhappy name, derived 
From glorious Isabella's mournful heiress, 
And wasted from the world as that great lady 
Shrunk into solitude. 

FLORIO. 

The Queen Joanna ; 
She who they say is lunatic ? 



THE CASTILIAN. [ACT , 

LOPEZ. 

Beware ! 
Let not y.our master hear you drop a word 
Which may touch lightly on that sacred grief, 
Unless you'd rouse a hurricane of wrath 
Past all you guess of anger. 



FLOEIO. 



How of wrath — 
Our master seems most gentle ? 

LOPEZ. 

So he is, 
And most of all indulgent in respects 
That touch himself ; -pl aj truant when he needs 
A page's tending most, neglect to bring 
His horse when he is bent on speed, forget 
Half of some urgent message,-if he chide you, 
It will be in a tone so mild, with look 
So like a father's smiling on the excess 
Of a son's heedless mirth, that you shall wait, 
When he has ceased, as wondering the rebuke 
Is past, and almost wishing it prolong'd; 
But let a word or smile betray the lack 
Of duteous reverence for the things he deems 
Holy in earth or heaven, and you shall stand 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 

Shivering before him with lock'd hands, nor dare 
To fly, to kneel, or to withdraw your eyes 
Erom his, or shape a wish but that the earth 
Would open and enfold you. 

Bun and help 
To wreath the hall for dancing ; — why you stand 
Aghast, as if in doubt what dancing means : 
"What ails you ? 

FLORIO. 

Nothing but the fear you raise 
Of such an anger. 

LOPEZ. 

Then be light of heart ; 
Only continue guileless and obedient 
As I believe you are, and you will live here 
In toils as light, and gallant sports as free, 
As you were born thrice noble. Trip away. 

[Exit Flojeuo. 

The sun declines ; what can detain my master ? 
Enter the Marquis de Mondeiar. 

MONDEIAR. 

What ! Vegetating still with ruddy cheek 
As twenty summers since — like yonder dial 
O'er- grown by the huge sycamore, that, touch' d 



8 THE CASTILIAN. [act 

No longer by the sunbeam, shows no trace 
Of coursing time ? My sister comes ; go in, 
And bicf the house be merry. 

LOPEZ. 

Peace be with you. 

[Exit Lopez. 
MONDEIAR. 

I will not say Amen to prayers for peace — 
Let all break now ! 

Enter Donna Maria de Pachecho. 

MONDEIAR. 

The blessings of the day 
Surround you, sister ! But I look in vain 
For its young hero and his sire ; 'tis graceless 
To own impatience in a time so happy, 
But eager thoughts forestall the approaching night, 
Which must not veil us without one hour spent 
"With those I soon may part from. 

MARIA. 

Eager thoughts- 
A threat of parting ! — Are you tamed at last, 
Subdued to beg from some fair conqueror 
One little evening hour for older loves ? 






scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 

So speeds a new-born tyranny ! Dear brother, 
"Whose absolute beauty rules your time ? 

HOKDEIAR. 

Forbear ! 
There is a sterner and a nobler mistress 
Than one of mortal loveliness that rules 
My anxious moments now : but what impedes 
Padilla and Alphonso ? I must quaff 
One ancient round of healths, or my next year 
Will roll unbless'd. 

maria {'pointing). 
Do you discern a thread 
Of white against the sky, that glistens touch' d 
By the last sunbeams, while the shelving crags, 
That open to disclose it, lie in shade ? 
Our boy, who knows it as the loftiest peak 
Our region boasts, won from his father promise 
That, on this birthday, he should make the trial 
To reach its summit ; before dawn they started, 
And have not yet return' d ; the way is long — 
Across the city 

MONDEIAR. 

True ; across the city — 
They may have been detain' d — across the city ? 



10 THE CASTILIAN. [act i. 

MARIA. 

What then ? There's not a heart within its walls, 
From £hat which is most quick with generous 

promptings, 
To vilest outcast's that retains one pulse 
Of good not wholly numb'd, that would not break 
To serve Padilla ; no — I cannot fear 
Aught in Toledo . 

MONDEIAR. 

I spoke not of danger. 
Hark ! Is there not a rush — a shout — a murmur ? 

MARIA. 

What is it that you fear ? 

MONDEIAR. 

Fear ? Lest the crowds 
That throng the streets, with too impatient love, 
May stay his passage, and before the time 
Speak their desire. Tou smile, as if your heart, 
Your high and towering heart, foreknew and hail'd 
My news unspoken. 'Neath yon glistening roofs 
Huge thoughts and towering passions wait the hour 
When they shall rend and scatter to the winds 
The feeble bonds that curb them. Blistering shame 



scenki.] THE CASTILIAN. 11 

For nation, mighty as Castile, transferr'd 

By a slight youth to alien rule, and scorn 

Of his ignoble instruments, have wing'd 

A people's strong conviction, which a day, 

An hour, may see triumphant. Hark ! There's life 

In yonder streets. 

MAEIA. 

Gro on — there is no sound — 
Speak on. 

MONDEIAE. 

No sound ? It may be so, for silence 
In its depth speaks ; of late the healthy breath 
Of daily life has stopp'd; the workman casts 
His tools in restless languor down, and joins 
Some cluster' d troop of idlers in the sun, 
Who seek no pastime, but seem met to gaze 
With wonder on each other ; each surveys 
The face of each, as if he read strange thoughts, 
And yet they only speak of common things, 
And that in hurried whispers ; children stand 
Perplex' d amid their toys : while mothers cleave, 
With arms grown rigid, to their husbands' breasts 
And eyes upturn' d, as if they strove for words 
To ask the meaning of the nameless fear 



12 THE CASTILIAN. [act t. 

That creeps along their heartstrings ; but that silence 
Shall break ; one war-cry from a leader's lips 
"Will cHange it into thunder ; but, alas ! 
The people want a leader. 

MARIA. 

You shall lead them. 

MONDEIAR. 

Not I, Maria ; I can strike and bleed, 

But own no power of sympathy which moulds 

The passions of a mighty nation roused 

For noblest issues. 'Tis not grace to wear 

A life as lightly as a festal plume 

For fortune's breeze to trifle with, and turn 

A panic-stricken legion by exploit 

Of desperate valour, that endows a chief 

For strife like ours : no ; he who would direct 

A people in its rising, must be calm 

As death is, yet respond to every pulse 

Of passion' d millions, — as yon slender moon 

That scarce commends the modest light it sheds 

Through sunset's glory to the gazer's sense, 

In all its changes, in eclipse, in storm, 

Enthroned in azure, or enriching clouds 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 13 

That, in their wildest hurry, catch its softness, 
"Will sway the impulsive ocean, he must rule 
By strength allied to weakness, yet supreme, 
Man's heaving soul, and bid it ebb and flow 
In sorrow, passion, glory, as he mourns, 
Struggles, or triumphs. 

MARIA. 

You intend my husband ? 

MONDEIAR. 

Yes. Will you urge him to his glorious work ? 
Let me unfold our cause. 

MARIA. 

Your cause ! I seek 
No knowledge of your cause, a thing of words ; 
It is the Man whose nature Grod arrays 
In semblance of His greatness that inflames 
And stamps the cause. Padilla was not born 
That an adoring household should surmise 
The might his goodness veils ; let him command, 
Conquer, and govern, and the cause of earth 
And heaven shall triumph in his reign. 

MONDEIAR. 

It shall ! 



14 THE CASTILIAN. [act i. 

I hear his footstep ; we must break all gently 
If we would see him leader. 

MARIA. 

I shall see him ; 
The hour is come : lie still my bounding heart ; 
The hour is come. 

[Enter Padilla and Alphonso, followed by Florio. Padilla 
unbuckles his sword-belt, and gives his sword to Floeio, 
who goes out with it. 

PADILLA. 

Accuse us not as loiterers ; 
We made our horses fly, till this gay horseman, 
Who loves them, I believe, almost as well 
As he loves us, cried shame upon our speed : 
Yet sunset chides us. 

MONDEIAR. 

Was your way delay' d 
By concourse in Toledo ? 

PADILLA. 

No ; its streets 
Were strangely void, as if its men had fled 
From portents of a hurricane ; the fault 
Lay in my judgment that too lightly scann'd 
The distance of the pinnacle we sought 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 15 

And found entrench'd amidst the hills it crowns 

By rock-cieft gorges ; yet 'twas full reward 

For painful struggles through the granite wilds 

To watch my brave companion, as with step 

Airy and true, he scaled the pillar' d top 

With head erect, while crumbling fragments broke 

To dust beneath each footstep, till he trod 

The glassy summit, never touch' d till then 

Save by the bolt that splinter' d it, serene 

As if a wing, too fine for mortal sight, 

Upbore him, while slant sunbeams graced his brow 

"With diadem of light. 

MONDEIAR. 

So may he stand 
Irradiate, when the crown of old Castile 
Shall wreathe that brow ! 

PADILLA. 

The crown of old Castile ! — 
The glorious realm of which he is the child — 
The realm for which, although no oath has yet 
Laid weight upon his boyhood, all his veins 
Would proudly pour their blood ! Forbid such thought 
Wing'd by the demon of a dream should break 
Through his light slumber ! What is it distracts you ? 



16 THE CAST1LIAN. [act i. 

MAEIA. 

'Twas but a harmless birthday wish, whicluLove 
Shaped in delighted sportiveness, and love 
Alone has listen' d to. 

PADILLA. 

A harmless wish ! 
And this from you, Maria ! "Were he born 
To tread the lowliest course of peasant life 
It were a false affection to desire 
His fever' d struggle and his loftier fortune, 
Instead of calm endeavour to adorn 
The rank assign'd him by his Grod, with grace 
That brave obedience nurtures ; but for him — 
Born a Castilian nobleman in faith 
Unvex'd by doubt, to duties which are bright 
"With glorious requisitions and rewards, 
What can be wish'd, but that he live and die 
"Worthy his lot, not raised in hope above 
Nor sunk in deed beneath it ? Tet you wish 
For such a youth a crown he cannot wear 
But by the base success of treason ! Brother, 
Rather than this fair nurseling of Castile 
Should grasp her crown, I'd see him bend his head 
In meek submission to her sword upraised 



scene i] THE CASTILIAN. 17 

To slay him falsely doom'd. Great Heaven ! lie's pale : 
A blackness trembles on his face — 'tis gone — 
What ails you, my Alphonso ? Did my words 
Sicken your heart with images of death ? 
Think them most idle. 

ALPHONSO. 

JSTo ; I felt not sickness ; 
Strange were it, if one school' d as I have been, 
Should quail at thoughts of death, and stranger still 
When you awake them. 

PADILLA. 

Pale again ! some grief 
Is struggling through the veil that wraps our Present, 
In portents — Heaven avert it from the brow 
Of youth, to strike the elder ! But this birth-night 
Was meant for joy ; whate'er the future bears, 
Let gratitude fill this. 

[They turn to the Alcove, and begin to take their places 
at the table. 

« Enter Lopez. 

LOPEZ. 

A royal officer, 
Who gives his name Gronsalvo, craves a word 
With you alone. 



L8 THE CASTILIAN. [act i. 

PADILLA. 

Gonsalvo — can it be 
The same with whom I shared a page's schooling 
When the great Marquis of Cadiz allow' d us 
His household's discipline ? Another time 
Eight gladly had I welcomed him — but now — 
Comes he alone ? 

LOPEZ. 

A band of soldiers, rude 
Of speech, attend him ; they have piled their swords 
And helmets in the court, as if they thought 
To sojourn with us. 

PADILLA. 

Give them food and wine, 
And lead Gronsalvo hither. 

[Exit Lopez. 

If he stands 
As I have heard, high in the Eegent's favour, 
He is too prosperous to waste time on me, 
And soon will leave us to piece out the joy 
Of this chance-ravell'd hour. 

MONDEIAE. 

Meanwhile I'll find 
Due welcome for your martial guests. 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 19 

[Aside to Maria. Thank Heaven 
Toledo's ready for them. 

[Aloud. 

Sister, come, 
We shall find work within. 

PADILLA. 

You'll find the feast 
Spread for our household in the hall ; be sure 
The soldiers are made welcome. 

[Exeunt Mondeiar, Maria, and Alphonso. 

padilla (alone). 

Here's their officer — 
How alter' d from the bright and wayward boy 
With whom I often wrestled, sometimes fought, 
And, though not earnest in affection, liked 
The better for our conflicts. Shall I seem 
As changed to him ? 

Enter Gonsalvo. 

PADILLA. 

Old playmate, you are welcome ; 
You come upon the birthday of my son, 
Who on this day attains the happy age 
At which we parted. You must drain one goblet 

c2 



20 THE CASTILIAN. [act 

Before you say that anything more urgent 

Than memory of old times has brought you to us. 

GONSALVO. 

No feasting — I am come on sterner business ; 
I bear commission to unveil and crush 
Foul treasons in your city. 



In Toledo ? 
Be jocund, then ; you'll find no painful duties ; 
There are not truer spirits in Castile 
Than glow within yon walls. 

GONSALVO. 

Tou think them loyal ! 
I must admire your unsuspecting goodness 
Rather than praise your wisdom. Is your ear 
So charm' d, that not a murmur from the craftsmen 
Has startled it ? Nay, is your sainted sleep 
So curtain' d by oblivion, that no echo 
Has wafted through its labyrinth of dreams 
A whisper of sedition ? 

PADILLA. 

Not a breath 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 21 

From a disloyal fantasy has stirr'd 
Life's placid air around us. 

GONSALVO. 

Strange as true. 
But, if you can, — suppose the crowd you praise 
As loyal in Toledo, should presume 
To mutter low complaints that Charles bestows 
His presence on a foreign court, or doubt 
His right to choose the E-egent of his realms 
Save from Castilian blood, — what would you tell them ? 

PADILLA. 

Bid them resume the duties God has laid 

On tranquil lowliness, and leave to Him 

By whom kings reign the power to judge of kings 

Who at His bar shall answer. 

GONSALVO. 

Bravely said. 
But, further ; what if they should heave with thoughts 
That, born in rugged commonwealths of old, 
Have started from the sceptred sleep of years 
To shake our monarchies ? Should dream of power 
To raise a bar in every peasant's soul 
At which the rulers of the earth shall stand 



22 THE CASTILIAX. [act i. 

Arraign'd ; nay, chafing at the sacred curb 
Of priestly guidance, claim to choose a creed 
And fashion faith at pleasure ? Do you live 
"While Luther's words, with lightning flash, assail 
The majesties of Rome, and hear no clang 
Of intellect's rebellion, ghastlier far 
Than that of armies ? 

PADILLA. 

I have heard reports 
Of heresies, but never wasted time 
To question them ; my days are short enough 
By light of cloudless faith to do the work 
"Which simple duty points ; I ask no space 
Tor my soul's venture but the path that lies 
Direct 'twixt me and Heaven ; enough for me 
To soar from earth along that narrow track 
Which angel-gleamings border : to my Grod 
Devotion — to my King obedience — these 
Are simple words that breathe of mighty things 
Sufficient to endow for life and death 
A Christian soldier's being. 

GONSALVO. 

It were well 
Tour friends could hear you talk thus. 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 23 

PADILLA. 

Talk ! what mean you ? 
You urge me to this service of the tongue 
And then you scoff at what my nature loathes 
As much as you despise it ! Why are you here 
To show me for a braggard of the faith 
Which every noble of Castile enshrines 
In heart as true as mine ? Tou smile — great Heaven ! 
Is my truth doubted ? Are you sent to call 
My life a lie ? Speak not, but take it ! 



No; 
The Begent, in his clemency, forbears 
To claim your life, although your vaunted friends, 
Eipe in Toledo for revolt, avow 
Full confidence that brave Padilla's name 
Will varnish their rebellion. Adrian seeks 
No more of treason's idol than your cession 
Prisoner to me ; and, for the present, doom'd 
To no worse dungeon than this fair domain, 
Where you may breathe your loyalty in prayers 
Eor us, whose falchions shall destroy the webs 
Of treachery you perceive not. 



24 THE CASTILIAN. [act i. 

PADILLA. 

Who has wrought this ? 
Where lurks* the caitiff who has forged the lie 
That, by the being of a moment, taints 
My fame for ever ? I have done no wrong 
With consciousness to mortal — let me know 
His name, Gronsalvo ! I will work no harm 
On the poor slave, but look into his eyes 
And bid him gaze on mine, as now I stand 
Confronting you : ha ! I perceive your flesh 
Where the soul's palsy creeps in every line 
That trembles with its separate cowardice 
Confessing that the falsehood you unfold 
Is your own fabric, — for some paltry gaud, 
An office, or a title, or a smile, 
You have spread your poisons on an honest life 
Whose youth your boyhood mated ; — come ! be bold ! 
Avow it ! Speak ! I wear no sword to guard 
The bosom you have rack'd — I cannot stab 
The slander at your heartstrings ! 

GONSALVO. 

Tou remind me 
That 'tis my duty to demand your sword, 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 25 

In token that you hold yourself a prisoner 
At the Imperial order. 

PADILLA. 

At the Emperor's ? 
Has Charles's warrant authorised this shame ? 

gonsalvo (showing a parchment). 
You know his hand ? 

padilla (glancing at it and giving it back). 

'Tis true — break heart — end all— 
Within there ! 

[ Calling. 
Enter Alphonso. 

padilla. 
No — not you — bid Lopez come — 
And bring my sword. 

ALPHONSO. 

To-night, sir ? 

PADILLA. 

Xes — at once — 
Why do you gaze upon me ? Go, my boy. 

[Exit Alphonso. 



A gallant youth ; is he your son ? 



26 THE CASTILIAN. [act 

PADILLA. 

Bear with me ; 
I am sfe-icken in a moment, and should learn 
Acquaintance with the griefs debasement spreads 
On all around it ; and my son must share them ; 
But I am not arm'd, as yet, to bid him look 
On the enforced surrender of that sword 
Which I have hoped that he would bear undimm'd 
Beside my bier, and after use it nobly 
For Charles, who now by you demands it ; soon- 
Full soon— my boy must feel the home he honors, 
A shameful prison. 

GONSALVO. 

No ; a brighter lot 
Shall wait him than to pace a captive's halls : 
He shall depart with me. 

PADILLA. 

With you ? 

GONSALYO. 

With me — 
A priceless hostage for his father's faith, 
Train' d in the camp by martial discipline 
To loyalty as firm as yours will show for 
While he is with me. 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 27 

PADILLA. 

In the camp ? Tour camp ? 
My child — whose opening spirit scarce retains 
A stain upon the purity it drew 

Prom heaven, when chrysome at the font — whence dust 
Of earth's pollutions, by the faintest breath 
Of love's rebuke unsettled, flit in air, 
And leave it all the angel ? Must he learn 
The lessons of your guard-room ? Never ! Take 
His innocent life, and with it the two lives 
That are sustain' d by his — or, if that grace 
Exceed your mission, find some loathsome cell — 
A narrow cell — there are but three of us — 
Where we may waste together ; — speak, and bless me ! 

GOKSALVO. 

The youth shall go with me. 

PADILLA. 

Wake not the spirit 
Tour warrant crush' d, to frenzy. Tou and I, 
Who meet thus strangely on life's downward verge, 
With hair just whitening, parted in the prime 
Of boyhood — -joyous, yet not graced as that 
Tou would make wretched — and though anxious years 



28 THE CASTILIAN. 



[ACT I. 



Have since revolved, the memories of our pastimes 
Have broken on me through their mists— do you 
Forget them utterly ?— or sterner hours 
When I have borne the meed your frolics drew 
Without a murmur ? By those old records 
Of sweet and sad companionship— spare this, 
And take all else ! 

GONSALVO. 

Show me a course as sure 
To keep the loyalty you vaunt unbroken ! 
'Twas well imagined — bid your son prepare — 
The light is waning. 

padilla {pacing the stage in great agitation). 

Heaven in grace look down ! 
I cannot answer him — the air is heavy — 
The ponderous storm-clouds fall and hem me in 
With canopy of brass— break— break above me— 
And let me breathe again ! They part— God's sky 
In deepest azure opens to my soul, 
And bids it thus defy thee ! 

GONSALVO. 

Traitor! 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 29 

Enter Maria, Mondeiar, and Alphonso, followed by Lopez 
with Padilla's sword. Padilla sinks on a bench at 
the bach of the scene, and covers his face with his hands. 

MARIA (tO GrONSALVO). 

What is this ? 
What sad news have you brought us ? 

PADILLA. 

You are come 
To hear this minion of the Regent charge 
Tour husband with sedition — ask his sword — 
And, for the hostage of his tainted honour, 
Demand his precious child. 

MARIA. 

You do not grant them ? 
Speak, speak ! You will not yield ! 

PADILLA. 

Never our darling ; 
All else the Emperor shall command. 

GONSALVO. 

A force 
Sufficient to compel you to obey 
My great commission waits ; if you withhold 
The hostage, I shall call my ready soldiers, 
Who will enforce your duty. 



30 THE CASTILIAN. [act i 

MONDEIAF. 

Call them — call them ! 
They'll scarcely answer you : surprised, they strive 
To burst the mansion's gates, which, while they feasted, 
My friends, who guess' d a shameful purpose, barr'd. 

PADILLA. 

My Sovereign's troops imprison'd in my halls — 
lie too soon made true ! 

[TO GONSALVO. 

Withdraw in time — 
I'll bid your soldiers follow. 

MONDEIAR. 

Let them go ; 
They can work little harm without the weapons 
I've taken charge of. 

PADILLA. 

Give them back. 

MARIA. 

Arm soldiers 
To rend our darling from us ? 

alphonso (kneeling to Padilla, who remains seated). 
Let me die 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 3 

Rather than rive your loyal nature thus, 
But not in life be parted from you. 

padilla (placing his hands on Alphonso's head, and 
bending over it). 

Never ; — 

The tyrant shall not dash away the bloom 
That innocence spreads here ; nor fill these eyes 
"With bitter tears ; nor bid them glare with fire 
That desperate pleasure lights ; nor teach these lips 
To utter thoughts unholy. 

[Rising and addressing Gonsalvo. 

Villain, leave us, 
Before the passion climbing in my soul 
Endow these hands with fury to avenge 
The home your presence violates ! 



Farewell — 
Your loyalty's right well assured — to-morrow 
Expect me with a band, too strong for rifling, 
To vindicate your king. 

[Exit Gonsalvo. 
MARIA. 

Tou ask'd your sword — 
'Tis here ; you'll find its use. 

[Padilla takes the sword from Lopez, who goes out. 



32 THE CASTILIAN. [act 

PADILLA. 

I welcome thee ! 
And tHus unsheath thee in the just defence 
Of this dear household. 

MONDEIAR. 

And shall feebler households 
"Want its protection ? 

PADILLA. 

They are not profaned 
By wrongs like ours. 

MONDEIAR. 

With insults great as this 
Castile's poor homes are visited ; the iron 
Delay'd till now acquaintance with your soul : 
But it has enter'd thousands of brave natures 
E'er it pierced yours. 

PADILLA. 

Do multitudes endure 
Beneath the Regent's sway such wrongs as this ? 
Am I by some foul dream beset, or roused 
From deep oblivion of my country's griefs 
To meet them naked ? Agonies and shames, 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 33 

That crouch' d beneath mild semblances of law, 
Start up, and chide me for the fond belief 
I have cherish' d too supinely while I dream' d 
That I perform' d man's duty. A new world 
Of strange oppressions startles me, as shapes 
Of dim humanity, that clustering hung 
Along the dusky ridges of the "West, 
Struck Spain's great xldmiral with awe of natures 
Erom Time's beginning passion' d with desires 
He had no line to fathom. 

[Shouts and tumult without. 
Enter Tendilla, Ovando, Gomez, and others. 

TENDILLA. 

Mondeiar, we wait you ; 
The people are in arms ; a swift report 
Of outrage to their noblest townsman wing'd 
Their discontents with rage that would not brook 
An hour's restraint: they come; they shout his 
name. 

[Nearer shouts, in which the name of Padilla is mingled. 
PADILLA. 

Eoused, said you, by my wrongs, while I stand thus 
Unheeding theirs ? 

[Shouts still nearer. 



34 THE CASTILIAN. [act i. 

MARIA (tO PADILLA). 

You hear that call ? 

1 PADILLA. 

I hear, 
And fly to answer it — for home ! Tor justice ! 

[Padilla rushes out, followed by Tendilla, Ovando, 
and others. 

mondeiar (following them). 
We triumph, sister ! Let your prayers ascend 
For blessings on our cause ! 

MARIA. 

On him ! on him ! 

[Exeunt severally. 



ACT II. 

One night is supposed to elapse between the First and Second Acts, 



d2 



ACT II. 

Scene I. — An eminence near the great Gate of Toledo, over- 
looking the city and the valley of the Tagus. Mondeiar 
discovered pacing the ground impatiently. 

mondeiar. 
No voice ! no step ! This spot Padilla named 
When to each chief he gave his midnight charge 
For daybreak meeting ; and the jagged nrn 
Of dawn, which yon divided peaks embrace, 
Is full of saffron, which bespeaks the sua 
Just raised on level ocean ; yet the air 
Is silent, and Toledo lies entranced 
As weary of brave sports. I know we triumph, 
Though my dull office lay without the walls, 
For the long shouts of joy that pierced the skies 
"Were mingled with no discords. 

The low hills 
Have caught the sunbeams ; still I gaze alone. 
Since those age-freighted hours in which I shared 



38 THE CASTILIAN. [act ii. 

Columbus' watch upon the dismal sea, 
While the low murmurs of despair were hush'd 
To dull submission by the solemn light 
Of the great Captain's eye, as from the helm 
It beam'd composure, till the world we sought 
Dawn'd in its flushes ere the headland broke 
The gloom to common vision, — I have felt 
~Nq vacant time so heavy as these moments 
Which should be throng' d with actions. 



Enter Tendilla. 



Am I right ? 



Is this our place of gathering ? 



MONDEIAR. 

Eight — your news- 
Why does the glorious madness of the night 
Lie hush'd in this deep silence ? 

TENDILLA. 

Freedom pants 
Amazed at victory. My duty lay 
Sometimes beside our chief, whose sabre's flash 
Along the streets gave signal to men's souls 
Eeady to leap from serfdom ; every house 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 39 

Started from darkness into festal lights 

As touch' d by magic finger ; bells rang forth 

In sudden peals ; and three triumphant words, 

Padilla — Liberty— Castile — o'er all 

The glorious clamours floated. 

MONDEIAR. 

The Alcazar ? 

TENDILLA. 

Griron, who comes, will tell us ; 'twas his charge 
To summon it on one side, while Padilla 
Assail' d it on the other. 

Enter Don Pedro de Giron. 

MONDEIAR. 

Welcome ! Tell us 
How sped your enterprise. 

GIRON. 

'I was none ; my boast 
Is that I bore the rabble's breath and live. 
The throng I should have led, swept me enthrall' d 
In rude embrace ; till, struggling to their front, 
I stood before the drawbridge, which upraised 
Left the trench yawning ; — then my rabble paused, 



40 THE CASTILIAN. [act ii. 

While soldiers, roused from slumber, mann'd the walls 

And with join'd sabres, fashioning sheets of steel, 

Defied my dusky forest waving grim 

"With axe and bludgeon ; as I gave the word 

For action, from within the fortress rose 

A frantic yell of triumph, which proclaim' d 

Our work achieved ; the soldiers dropp'd their swords, 

And stretch' d their arms impatient to embrace 

Their rugged foes : the drawbridge fell ; the craftsmen 

In headlong rapture swept across to join 

Padilla's band ; while from the central tower 

The long-furl' d banner of Castile flew out 

Among the stars; one voice exclaim' d, " Thank God !" 

And at the words, the motley hosts kneel' d down 

Like docile children at their mother's call, 

And cross'd their arms in silence. But here comes 

The idol who enchants them, heralded 

Even to our meeting by their clamours. 

[Shouts. 
Enter Padilla. 

PADILLA. 

"Welcome ! 
Beneath the unclouded dome of heaven give thanks 
For last night's stainless conquest ; if my sword 
Had not chastised a stripling who mistook 






scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 41 

The time for one of license, 'twere undimm'd 
By drop of crimson. Who should now complete 
Our roll of leaders ? 

GIRON. 

I have friends to name, 
Guzman, Villena — 

PADILLA. 

Villena ! must we own 
That ^reckless gamester ? 

GIRON. 

If his personal life 
Is chequer' d with light follies, 'tis derived 
From fountains ancient and august as fill 
Castilian veins. 

PADILLA. 

So bears a shame more flagrant 
Than his whose frailties, urged by needs, defile 
A lowlier spring of being. In Castile, 
The glory that ancestral ages wreathe 
Around a noble's brow is less his own 
Than portion of the lustre that arrays 
His country ; and the baseness that obscures it 
Combines foul treason to the sacred dead 
With robbery of the living. 



42 THE CASTILIAN. [act ii. 

GIRON. 

Dare you charge 
My friend with baseness ! 

PADILLA, 

Yes ; what meaner vice 
Crawls there than that which no affections urge, 
And no delights refine ; which from the soul 
Steals mounting impulses which might inspire 
Its noblest ventures, for the arid quest 
Of wealth 'mid ruin ; changes enterprise 
To squalid greediness, makes heaven-born hope 
A shivering fever, and, in vile collapse, 
Leaves the exhausted heart without one fibre 
Impell'd by generous passion ? And your friend, 
"Weary of cards and dice, would make our wrongs 
The counters of his game ! We'll none of him ! 

MONDETAR. 

Brother, be wise ; in such a state as ours, 

"We must not judge thus nicely — Griron's friend 

Must find allowance. 

PADILLA. 

Is it so ? Alas ! 
WTio else ? 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 43 

TENDILLA. 

I name Ovando — Gomez 



PADILLA. 

Brawlers, who without touch of true regard 
For men of bitter needs, inflame their thoughts 
By falsehood ; and, for succour, give them hate, 
The soul's worst poison. 

GIRON. 

So I think of them ; 
But we must work with various instruments, 
Or perish. 

PADILLA. 

great Heaven ! I thought our cause 
Strong in its justice. 

MONDEIAR. 

So it is, my brother ; 
And while a nation's passion sweeps its depths 
May bear these surface eddies ; as the sheet 
Of yon broad river, by light breezes touch'd, 
Breaks into devious ripples as of streams 
Slanting for various destinies, yet keeps 
Its single course — so while a cause like ours, 
Moved by a people's righteous fury, pours 
Eight onward, these obliquities are lost 



44 THE CASTILIAN. 



[ACT II 



In the great current, if we let them skim it, 

Nor break its force to check them. Villena comes ; 

Pray welcome him. 

Enter the Marquis de Villena. 
villena (offering his hand to Padilla). 

Let me embrace our chief. 

padilla (shudders, but gives his hand). 
Tour hand. Who follows next ? 

GIRON. 

My nephew seeks 
Service and honour with us. 

Enter Carillo with his arm bandaged. 

PADILLA. 

Ha ! he has won 
A scratch already ; would it were achieved 
In honour ! Do I see the officer 
"Who felt my sword last night ? 

CARILLO. 

You see him bow 
Eepentant to your censure. 

PADILLA. 

Your offence 



scene i.] THE CASTTLIAN. 45 

In council must be judged ; till that is past, 
Eesign your sword and hold yourself a prisoner. 

GIRON. 

My kinsman welcomed thus ! 

PADILLA. 

If he had sprung 
From the noblest blood of earth, he should be judged 
And sentenced as the meanest. He has stain' d 
A righteous enterprise which, else, had worn 
No spot. Amid the tumult of the night 
One cry of agony alone was heard, 
And 'twas a woman's, who, from rude embrace, 
Shriek' d for protection ; happily I was near, 
Or the most holy outcry of the earth 
Had been unanswer'd. 

CARILLO. 

Let me hear my sentence 
At once, from one whose words by justice shaped 
Bow me with shame. 

PADILLA. 

Serve in the ranks six months. 

GIRON (tO CARILLO). 

Do not endure it. 



46 THE CASTILIAN. [act ii. 

CARILLO. 

Uncle, let me serve, 
And by my prompt obedience win again 
The rank I had forgotten. 



[To Padilla. 

Sir, assign me 
A common soldier's trust. 



PADILLA. 

Eelieve the guard 
At yonder city gate. 

[Exit C ARILLO . 

PADILLA (tO GlRON). 

Tou think me stern, 
But you will one day thank me. 

GIRON. 

I shall thank you 
In fitting season. 



MONDEIAR 

Part we now to meet 
An hour hence at the council-house, and shape 
Our onward course. 

GIRON. 

Agreed. 

[Exeunt all but Padilla and Mondeiae. 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 47 



MONDEIAR,. 

You have made a foe 



Potent and deadly. 



PADILLA. 

I am glad to know it ; 
His friendship had been worse than deadly — shameful. 

MONDEIAR. 

I thought you were more constant in your temper — 
You are chafed now. 

PADILLA. 

I will subdue this fault 
By gazing for a moment on the home, 
Whence the sweet breath of old familiar joys 
Henceforth will rarely soothe me. 

MONDEIAR. 

'Twill unnerve you 
Tor our stern duties. 

PADILLA. 

JN~o ; 'twill nurture in me 
That mighty sense of wrong which only grows 
From lovely things insulted. Pray you say 
That I am coming. 

[Exit MONDEIAR. 



48 THE CASTILIAN. [act ii. 

Padilla {alone). 
I must gather strength 
To quell these swellings of indignant nature 
Among those mighty images which make 
A desperate venture calm. Loveliest of vales, 
Spread now before my gaze in childhood's light, 
Speak to me with the echoes which your rocks 
Have treasured from vow'd striplings' martial steps, 
"While they bade frank adieu to sports and hopes 
And meditated forms which death could wear 
In our great Christian strife, as thoughts of lovers 
Dally with shapes of joy ! Castilian banners, 
That flutter' d in my life's remotest dawn, 
And made my childish fancy leap to valour, 
"Wave with such solemn grandeur as shall sweep 
All meaner angers to augment one rage 
August against the alien rule which blasts 
The land you glorify ! Let all delights 
Of home, which sense of loyal faith made sweeter, 
Lend their selectest symbols to oppose 
The power which bids them wither at its grasp, 
Or sparing makes them slavish, — and invest 
My soul as with a breastplate ! I am arm'd. 

[Exit Padilla. 



scene ii.] THE CASTILIAN. . 49 



Scene II. — The Terrace in Padilla's garden, as in 1st Act. 
— Shouts heard at intervals, growing nearer. 

Enter Donna Maria. 

maeia. 
Shout on ! Eoar on ! My spirit drinks the crash 
Of furious discords blent in one great hope, 
As I have listen' d to the mighty cataract, 
From which the sounds of jagged channels join 
In one majestic thunder that descends 
With the same single, music on the ear 
As at the river's conquest o'er its rocks 
"When first it made its passage. Eoar, and speak 
The strong outbursting of a nation's soul 
At its true master's call ! Is none awake 
In whom the lonely rapture of my night 
May find an echo ? I will call my son — 
Alphonso ! Can he sleep ? 

Enter Lopez. 

MARIA. 

Where's your young master ? 



50 THE CASTILIAN. [act n. 

LOPEZ. 

Alas ! I know not ; as, last night, with me 
He paced our loftiest crags, a wilder cry 
Than any which our earnest ears had caught, 
Eose from the city ; — when, without a word, 
He sprang from the sharp margin of the rock 
Like bird in air ; scarce touch' d the points that aid 
The painful climber ; swam the stream which gave 
A gurgle's notice of his buoyant course ; 
Leap'd to the meadow ; waved his plume and flew 
Into the darkness. 

MARIA. 

Bravely done ; his place 
Is at his father's side. The shouts draw nearer; 
Can you not catch one name above them all ? 

Enter Alphonso. 

MARIA. 

Where have you left Padilla ? 

ALPHONSO. 

Left him ! mother, 
I have sought him through the night, and cried in vain 
To crowds that circled him to give me way, 
Though I was near him often ; now they rush, 



scene ii.] THE CASTILIAN. 51 

Led by the noblest in Toledo, hither, 
And, as I think, to crown him. 

MARIA. 

Heaven assuage 
The transports of my soul, that I may meet 
This fortune as befits his wife ! I'll sit 
And study to be marble. 

[Sits. 

Enter Don Velasco, Prefect of Toledo, with Soldiers 
and Citizens. 

VELASCO. 

Noble lady, 
We seek Padilla. 

MARIA. 

Here ! Then danger's past, 
Else ye would not expect him in a home 
"Which only knows its thunders. 

VELASCO. 

It is past ; 
Toledo's free ; and her delighted citizens 
Would hail you as a queen. 

MARIA. 

Me ! Do not waste 
A moment of this time in wreathing honors 

E 2 



52 THE CASTILIAN. [act ii. 

For a frail woman, who has only grace 
As she adores the mighty. My sole claim 
Is, that I have loved Padilla from his bloom 
Of glorious youth, not as a love-sick maid 
Entranced to watch the shadow of a curl 
On man's bright forehead, in the swimming depths 
Of hazel eyes with fondness downward bent 
Reads her own charms reflected ; 'twas his soul, 
His kingly nature, that I honor' d then 
And worship now ; if ye shall crown Padilla, 
Ye will do wisely. But my brother comes — 
And, after him, my husband. 

Enter Mondeiar — after him Padilla. 

MARIA. 

My dear lord, 
You have return' d in happiest time to give 
Your gracious answer to Toledo's prayers, 
Which claim you for a sovereign, whom Castile 
Will soon confirm her own. 

PADILLA. 

Me? 

VELASCO. 

Our shouts sent up 



scene ii.] THE CASTILIAN. 53 

From our full hearts shall answer. He whose name, 
As by enchantment, shook our fetters from us, 
Alone shall rule us. 

PADILLA. 

Do you speak the wish 
Of all the citizens ? 

VELASCO. 

All — save some base ones 
"Who seek their own advancement. 

PADILLA. 

Is it so ? 
Is what I welcomed as a noble voice, 
Sent from a people's spirit to its King's 
To wake his justice, treason ? Do I stand here 
A chief of rebels ? JNo, my countrymen, 
Tour error's but a moment's extasy. 
Which Heaven will pardon. 

MONDEIAR. 

But will Charles forgive ? 
Does loyalty deceive you with the hope 
That he whose nature when it verged on manhood 
Was old in craftiest policy's success 
Will pardon this revolt — start not — such name 



54 THE CASTILIAN. [act ii. 

Our acts must carry — or forgive the love 
With which the people urge you to protect 
Yourself with them ? 

PADILLA. 

It may be true, I am blasted ; 
It may be, that in rising to redress 
Great wrongs, we have snapp'd the holy bond of 

subjects ; 
But I will bear all shames before the spoil 
Of such disaster sink with meaner guilt 
The rebel to the robber. 

MARIA. 

Husband! lord! 
Before you fling the proffer' d sceptre from you 
Think of the strifes its sway alone can charm, 
The blessings which its touch would waken ! 

PADILLA. 

No— 
The course of right is single. Such a flaw 
As is created by a chief, whose place 
Or circumstance leads men to fix their thoughts 
Upon him with affection, when he swerves 
From duty, works more mischief to earth's faith 



scene ii.] THE CASTILIAN. 55 

Than the victorious recreant can atone 
By years of wisest policy. 

MONDEIAR. 

Then perish — 
He who has burst a nation's chains, must be 
Its master or its victim. 

PADILLA. 

I am doom'd then ; 
My choice is made. 

MARIA. 

If not for these — or me — 
Tou think in this great moment, look on him, 
Sole offspring of our love whom earth retains ! 
Plead for yourself, Alphonso ! 

VELASCO. 

Noble youth, 
Plead for us all ! 

PADILLA. 

Speak your desire, my son, 
As freely as to God. 

ALPHONSO. 

Mother, forgive me ; 



56 THE CASTILIAN. [act ii 

My heart is in my father's, and his words 

Should have been mine if I had power to shape them. 

PADILLA. 

You hear him — through the unsullied lips of youth 
Heaven's answer breathes. Well said, my noble son! 
Look up, Maria ! 

[Donna Maria places her hands on Padilla's shoulders, 
and looks intently on his face. 

MARIA. 

I can read the future, 
"Writ in the furrows of this steadfast face ; 
The desperate struggle — the ungrateful herd — 
Sharp death and mangled story. Think again ! 

PADILLA. 

I have thought all my life for such an hour — 
I must act now. Assure me that your courage 
Will quell this anguish. 

MARIA. 

I shall conquer it. 



And smile ? 



MARIA. 

Yes ; if you will it you shall find 



scene ii.] THE CASTILIAN. 57 

A smile on this poor face, till death shall fix 
Its last in wax. 

PADILLA. 

That's brave ! The Council waits — 
Thither, my countrymen, I bear this life 
For you, which had been worthless if enwreath'd 
With treason's circlet ; Mondeiar, come with me. 

[To Maria. 

Bid me farewell. 

MARIA. 

Farewell. 

PADILLA. 

Alphonso, wait 
Upon your mother ; she will be prouder of you 
Than when she clasp' d you first. 

[Exeunt Padilla and Mondeiar. 
MARIA. 

My friends, for all 
The mighty good you proffer' d, take my thanks : 
Forgive me ; I am faint. 

[Velasco offers to support her ; she takes her son's arm. 
MARIA. 

Alphonso' s arm 
Is strong enough to prop me ; Heaven preserve you ! 

[Exeunt severally. 



58 THE CASTILIAN. [act ii. 



Scene III. — TJie Council-house of Toledo. Giron, Villena, 
Tendilla, Gomez, Oyando, and others discovered. 

GIRON. 

Whom wait we for ? Our duty cries dispatch. 

GOMEZ. 

Padilla will be here anon. 

GIRON. 

Padilla ! 
At such a moment, must we idly sit 
Till he has surfeited with speech the rabble 
That doat upon his footsteps ? Messengers 
Attend to tell the people's triumphs won 
In kindred cities. 

VILLENA. 

Let the first in rank 
Preside. 



The first in rank ! "Well — for to-day — 

[Aside to Ovando. 

Giron that seat is yours. 



scexe in.] THE CASTILIAN. 59 

gikon {having taken the central seat). 

Though slight desert 
Has raised me to this station, I can grace it 
With news most happy; — news which proves the 



That triumphs in our city, no chance blaze 

Like that which an old earth-torch waves from cleft 

Of an extinct volcano, but the sign 

Of one huge fire that glows within Castile, 

And has already burst its shallow rind 

In Zamora and Burgos. With your leave, 

I'll ask the tidings of the Messengers 

Who thence wait on us. 

Enter two Messengers. 

GIRON. 

Who depute you to us ? 

MESSENGER. 

The townsmen who command in both our cities — 
Which have one tale for each. Our Deputy, 
Returning home from Cortez with the shame 
Of voting for the Emperor's donative, 
Without an effort to obtain redress 
For outrages we suffer from the Regent, 



60 THE CASTILIAN. [act ii. 

Offer' d with words to cozen us ; but hands 

Of sturdy citizens prevented speech, 

Drew the poor sophist to the gate, and left him 

Eree to the elements ; meanwhile, his house 

Was levell'd, and his costly goods were piled 

In glittering heaps, from which the poorest shrink 

As things accursed. The rest is in suspense 

And waits your counsel. 

TENDILLA. 

As the people won 
This freedom, I advise the people mould it. 
I move, that, in Toledo, every parish 
Choose by the votes of all a councillor 
To rule the city, till our just demands 
Be satisfied ; and that we urge this course 
On other cities. 

VILLENA (to GlRON). 

Do you hear this, Giron ? 
Is it for this the noblest blood in Spain 
Is perill'd ? 

GIRON. 

Be content ; Tendilla speaks 
The spirit of the hour, and I approve 



___ 



scene in.] THE CASTILIAN. 61 

The scheme he offers. I would only add, 
As the time presses, that, in every parish, 
The first in station take the votes, and name 
The councillor elected. If you all 
Agree, all rise. 

[All rise — Shouts without. 
GIRON. 

'Tis well. What means that shout ? 
Padilla comes — too late. 

Enter Padilla and Mondeiar. 

GIRON. 

Sit, noble friends. 

PADILLA. 

Tour pardon — an unwelcome crowd too long 
Detain' d us. Do you meditate a scheme 
Of government for present need ? 

GIRON. 

'Tis settled— 
A council chosen by free votes of all; 
One for each parish. 

PADILLA. 

All ? Kenect again — 
Has not a course of ages which begins 



62 THE CASTILIAN. [act ir. 

Beyond the Saracen, matured a power 

Incorporate in Toledo to preside 

In exigence like this ? From, age to age 

Renew'd from busy life, yet graced with honour 

By old heroic story, which imparts 

To citizens beset with care a sense 

Of true communion with the glorious Past 

And hopeful Future, — one of those old guilds 

That through the cities of Castile have nurtured 

Freedom in shapes of loyalty, that stand 

Like living pillars round the throne to guard it, 

And look remonstrance on it. 



Tyrannies, 
Servile in infancy, in dotage cruel, 
Hollow in all. "We'll sweep them to the Past, 
"With which they boast alliance. 

PADILLA. 

Slave ! 



Dost dare 
Denounce me as a slave ? 



scene in.] THE CASTILIAN. 63 

PADILLA. 

The worst of slaves — 
The bondsman of the moment, scarcely free 
To talk of yesterday. 

MONDEIAR (tO PADILLA). 

Pray you, be calm. 

PADILLA. 

Calm ! — while the whirlpool of the hour engulphs 

The growth of centuries ! Pause ere ye rive, 

With strength of fever, things embedded long 

In social being ; you'll uproot no form 

With which the thoughts and habits of weak mortals 

Have long been twined, without the bleeding rent 

Of thousand ties which to the common heart 

Of nature link it ; wrench'd, perchance you'll mock 

A clumsy relic of forgotten days, 

While you have scatter' d in the dust unseen 

A thousand living crystals. 

GIRON. 

We have voted. 

PADILLA. 

Voted ! Will no one join me to implore 



.64 THE CASTILIAN. [act ii. 

Another thought ? At least, dispatch, at once, 
Fit mission to our King, whence he may learn 
That we seek only hearing for such prayers 
As royal hearts should answer. 

VILLENA. 

To the King ? 
Must all end thus ? 

OVANDO. 

To the King — the recreant ? 

PADILLA. 

This in my presence — 

[Padii/la lays his hand on his sword, and advances 
towards Ovando, but is stayed by Mondeiar. 

Am I sunk so low 
That I must, hear this treason, and not strike 
The speaker dead ? 

GIEON. 

Ovando, do not raise 
Contention here : Padilla counsels wisely ; 
If Charles reject our prayers — 

PADILLA. 

He'll not reject them : 
Mine only be the peril ; let me seek him, 



/ 



scene in.] THE CASTILIAN. 65 

And if I bring not home his seal'd assent 
To all we justly claim, I'll bring this life 
To pay the forfeit. 

GIRON. 

No, — we cannot spare you. 
Let's number our demands ; first, that the King 
Dismiss the Eegent, and resume his rule 
In person over us. 

PADILLA. 

'Tis just ; he'll grant it. 

TENDILLA. 

Next, that he fill all offices of state 
"With true Castilians ; that the Cortez meet 
Once in three years ; that every city send 
Three to compose it, one the Clergy's choice, 
One from the Nobles, from the Commons one. 



The Commons ! — well ! — so be our prayer. 

VILLENA. 

The Commons ! 

GIRON. 

Be ruled, Villena ; 'tis best so ; what else ? 



66 THE CASTILIAN. [act ii. 

OVANDO. 

That the King's choice in marriage shall await 
The sanction of the Cortez. 

PADILLA. 

I will perish — 
Ere I consent to ask my king to yield 
His eqnal part in the divinest joy 
Our sins have left us, to the chance caprice 
Of heartless policy — to become a slave 
In that respect which masters, who are men, 
Leave their slaves free to choose in. Do ye mean this ? 

GIRON. 

We'll speak of that hereafter ; here's more news. 
Enter Messenger from Segovia. 

MESSENGER. 

Segovia craves your help, invested closely 

By Adrian's troops, under his judge Eonquillo. 

GIRON. 

The war begun ? Has then Segovia risen ? 

MESSENGER. 

Have ye not heard how Tordesillas died 

On his return from Cortez ? Scorning threats 






scene in.] THE CASTILIAN. 67 

That thickly murmur' d as he pass'd, he turn'd 
In the church porch to speak, and waved his hand 
"With noble motion to enforce the silence 
His stately presence claim' d ; but e'er a word 
Escaped his lips, a hundred massive hands 
"Were spread to grasp him, and his form was lost 
Amidst the infuriate crowds who bore him thence 
Shrieking for mercy with a voice that sank 
Prom sharpest cry of anguish to faint moan 
Of wearied infancy ; and though the Priests, 
Eobed in procession met them, and upraised 
The Host to win a moment's time for prayer, 
Swept with him to the gibbet's foot, nor ceased 
Their madden' d roar, till lifting him to swing 
Prom the detested beam, they found the work 
Of death completed, and with sudden awe 
Grazed on their rescued victim. 

PADILLA. 

Merciful Heaven ! 
Is this the people's justice ? 

GIRON. 

It is past. 
Say on. 

f2 



63 THE CASTILIAN. [act ii. 



Konquillo came, by Adrian sent 
To punish, not the reckless crowd alone 
But all Segovians ; he proclaim'd us outlaws, 
And now invests our walls ; while Eonseca, 
Mush'd with Medina's ravage, where he burn'd 
The labours of a thousand looms, leads veterans 
To join Ronquillo. If you grant no aid, 
Segovia's doom is seal'd, and shameful death 
Awaits the noblest of our citizens 
Who would have died to stay the rabble's vengeance. 

PADILLA. 

There's work for me more fit than war of words. 
Let me depart your soldier, with no troops 
Save such as, on the instant, choose to join 
My standard, whether disciplined in arms 
Or fresh from workman's labour. 



Nobly urged. 

VILLENA. 

Will you thus arm him to achieve the crown 
The rabble fain would give him ? 



SCENE III.] 



THE CASTILIAN. 



69 



MONDEIAE. 



base fear ! 
This day, when urged by thousands to accept it, 
He spurn' d it with a singleness of nature 
Beyond your reach of guessing. 

PADILLA. 

Brother, peace- 
Disdain to answer him ; my heart's too full — 
Castilians ! If ye think that in this mould 
Along one fibre creeps a wish so vile 
As this poor gamester in his squalid fancy 
Deems possible, explore it with your swords ; 
Here on my knee, with naked breast, I claim 
Tour quittance or your steel. 



[Kneels. 



GIRON. 

Eise, noble soldier ; 
I'll answer for your truth with life, and all 
Will wager for it their' s as freely. 

The other Councillors, rising. 

All. 



PADILLA. 

Another hour shall see my march began 



70 THE CASTILIAN. [act ii. 

Let me but crave one boon ; the Queen Joanna, 
Amidst the conflicts of the time, may lack 
Observance 

OVANDO. 

Have we leisure to attend 



The humours of distraction ? 

PADILLA. 

Leisure ? Yours ? 
Tour lifetime, if it would outlast the world, 
Were nobly barter' d for an hour employ'd 
In chasing from the mirror of that soul 
One film that dims it. I would pray the council 
Leave that my wife may tend her, and my son 
Serve her with page's duty. 

GIRON. 

Deem this order' d 
As you desire. 

PADILLA. 

Attend one parting prayer — 
May strength continue to our cause, to claim 
Bravely our just demands, and, those achieved, 
May grace be with it nobly to dissolve 
In old obedience ! As you keep this hope 
God prosper you ! Farewell. 






scene m.] THE CASTILIAN. 7'. 

GIRON. 

Farewell, great soldier. 

[Exit Padilla. 

At noon we'll meet again ; till then farewell. 

[Exeunt all but Giron and Villena. 

Villena, you must leave our game to me ; 

I comprehend and hate Padilla, you 

Simply detest him. You would play with men 

As with your dice and counters, which may stand 

For vulgar natures, but afford no mark 

By which a noble constancy of soul 

May bear its estimate ; and as a child, 

Moving an unknown power, confounds the wisest, 

So, while you weave your schemes with common 

chances, 
Greatness perplexes all. 

VILLENA. 

If he should come 
Victorious home ? 

GIRON. 

He will return victorious, 
But with scarce half the troops he carries hence, 
And more than half of them rude clowns who leave 
Their trades, in sudden passion to be school'd 



72 THE CASTILIAN. [act ii. 

By discipline they guess not, and to smart 

With wounds, which the train' d soldier having learn' d 

In youth to image with his future, bears 

As ills familiar, but to craftsman's sense 

"Will seem strange sorrows. Then, be sure, that 

Charles 
Will scorn the missives of revolted subjects, 
And our proud chief, who fancies that he arms 
At once for king and rabble, disabused, 
Will stand aghast, with nature rent in twain 
And fall to ruin ; meanwhile he and all 
Who worship him, have left the state to us. 

VILLENA. 

Say rather to a council rabble-chosen. 

GIRON. 

Tut ! you as dimly read the common mind 
As the heroic spirit. Trust me, Marquis, 
The lower that the soil lies, and the wider 
The surface it presents, the kindlier strikes 
The germ of new dominion there ; the rankness 
Of elements that moulder round its stem 
Shall shed imperial purple through its flower 
When it shall flaunt in sunshine. 

[Shouts without. 






scene in.] THE CASTILIAN. 73 

VILLENA. 

Those shouts hail 
Padilla's band departing. 

GIRON. 

Well ! We talk 
More safely thus protected by their clamour, 
While they exhaust the passion which inspires it. 
Believe me, comrade, when the incense floats 
Most thickly round the idol's shrine, its fire 
Begins to smoulder. Let us divide the stakes 
Fairly for once : the glory of the day 
Padilla justly wins ; its spoils be ours ! 

[Exeunt. 



ACT III. 



A Month is supposed to elapse between the Second and Third Acts. 
The Scene throughout the Third Act lies in Avila. 



ACT III. 

Scene I. — A Street in Avila. 

VILLENA. 

You say our fortune ripens ; where is its show 
Of fruit or blossom to repay our sojourn 
In this dull Avila ? 

GIRON. 

Have not all cities 
Which tower throughout Castile embraced our cause, 
And hither sent their delegates to form 
The Holy Junta, who this day assemble ? 
And though Padilla's fame to Mondeiar gave 
Toledo's voice, do I not sit for Burgos ? 

VILLENA. 

And what is won for me but manners curb'd 
By stricter supervision ? 

GIRON. 

So you think 



78 THE CASTILIAN. [act in. 

This state will last! 'Twill "break in thousand fragments ; 
Then he who leads the troops will rule Castile. 

VILLENA. 

Such luck will be the General's who returns 
This hour with fresh-won glories. 

GIKON. 

And this hour 
The messengers dispatch' d to Charles will meet us 
And, as I prophesied, without redress. 
The Junta, who propose to sway men's hearts 
By solemn plainness, in the open square 
Sit to claim oaths of fealty to their power, 
"Without regard of Charles, unless he grant 
Petitions which, I know, he scorn' d to hear. 
Padilla will refuse to take that oath, 
ioid the alternative is exile. Guess 
Who then will lead the army. 

[ Ti'umpets without. 

Hark ! those sounds 
Proclaim the Junta sitting. I am late. 

[Exeunt. 






scene ii.] THE CASTILIAN. 79 



Scene II. — The great Square before the Cathedral of Avila. — 
The Delegates of the Holy Junta discovered in ivhite robes, 
seated on stone benches ranged in semi-circle ; Mondeiar, 
as Delegate of Toledo, presiding. 

MONDEIAR. 

'Tis time we should receive the Ambassadors 
"Whom we dispatch'd to Charles, and who attend us. 

Enter Giron. 

MONDEIAR. 

The Delegate of Burgos — have you sworn ? 

GIRON. 

At dawn beside the altar. 

MONDEIAR. 

Take your place. 

[Giron sits. 
Enter Messengers. 

MESSENGER. 

The General craves admission ! 

MONDEIAR. 

Will you give 
Padilla or the Ambassadors first audience ? 



[All bow. 



80 THE CASTILIAN. 

GIRON. 

If I may read your wish, we vote Padilla. 

MONDEIAR. 

Tell the commander we desire his presence. 

[Exit Messenger. 

He'll pay our courtesy. 

Enter Padilla. 

MONDEIAR. 

Sit, noble brother. 

[Padilla sits. 

Segovia's Delegate prays leave to tell 
Tour prowess at his city. 

DELEGATE OF SEGOVIA. 

While 'twas circled, 
And, by Eonquillo, destined for the sword, 
Padilla, by one mighty onset, dash'd 
His living wall of soldiers into knots 
Of wondering cravens, and dispell' d the siege, 
Before Segovia own'd a throb of hope, 
Or rose from her despair to breathe a wish 
Eor blessings on his arms. 

PADILLA. 

Small praise be mine. 



scene ii.] THE CASTILIAN. 81 

Bonquillo, sent to punish, not subdue, 

Thought only to meet citizens made feeble 

By conscious guilt of blood ; and from the bands 

That follow'd me, stout hearted though untrain'd, 

Fled staggering with amazement at the might 

Plain honesty confers. Tell your Segovians, 

I wish, instead of stifling me with thanks, 

They had made their gibbets blacken with the leaders 

Of those who stain' d the rising of Castile 

With Tordesillas' murder ; but alas ! 

"With base impunity of crime, revolt 

Confounds all qualities ! 

MONDEIAR. 

This is not a time 
For such a question : we are met to weigh 
Tour claims to honour, and the best remains — 
Proud Ponseca's defeat. 



Account it little — 
A rush — a charge or two — and hot pursuit 
Of panic-stricken soldiers, whom to hunt 
Por sword or capture, was as base an oflice 
As to chastise a slave. 



8 2 THE CASTILIAN. [ a °t hi. 

MONDEIAR. 

Valladolid— 

PADILLA. 

Open'd its gates without a blow— or blows 

Swift conquest made forgotten. Thence I bore 

The jewels, sceptres, crowns and regal robes 

Of both the kingdoms, which the' astonish' d Eegent 

Yielded, without a word, and scarcely met 

My glance, while I commanded him to creep 

Away unharm'd, and lead a shameful life 

In the city he had scourged. 

GIRON. 

Most bravely done. 
One form alone remains before we render 
For all our solemn thanks— that you accept 
The oath of fealty. 

PADILLA. 

Oath — for what ? to whom ? 

MONDEIAR. 

An oath of fealty to the Holy Junta 
And ancient customs of Castile. 

PADILLA. 

Small need, 



scene ii.] THE CASTILIAN. 83 

Methinks, for such an oath from one who serves 
With arms, not counsels. Does the oath you claim 
Consist with oaths already sworn to Charles ? 

MONDEIAK. 

Tes ; we allow of duty to the king, 
Provided he concede the just demands 
We laid before him. 

PADILLA. 

make no reserves — 
The great soul trusts ! Think how you trusted first, 
And at whose bidding — his, who from a cell, 
Savagely framed for cruel penance, stepp'd 
To the majestic use of courtly arts, 
Which luxury makes facile, while he wore 
The purple o'er the sackcloth that inflamed 
His flesh to torture, with a grace as free 
As when it floats o'er worshipp'd womanhood 
Or princely youth ; his who had learn' d in vigils 
Of lonely night, such wisdom for command 
Of the world's issues, as if spirits breathed 
The long experiences of wisest statesmen 
Into a single breast ; who from a soul, 
Which men imagined withering like his frame 

g2 



84 THE CASTILIAN, [act in. 

In painful age, pour'd, as from living urn, 

Exhaustless courage into soldier's hearts 

And made them heroes. "What a power burst forth 

'From the wan Cardinal's expanding frame, 

"While, with the fluttering voice, that grew as clear 

As note of clarion, he invoked Castile 

To swear allegiance to her stripling prince, 

In faith that he, whom Heaven ordains to rule 

Will have Heaven's aid to govern ! Tou replied, 

As, through Ximenes, Isabella spake, 

And pray'd you, while her daughter's soul should lie 

In cloud, to own her grandson. 

MONDEIAE. 

Noble trust — 
Foul recompense. 

PADILLA. 

Judge not by common rules 






The opening passage of a mighty life ! 
Think you the youth of him who e'er he reach' d 
The age a spendthrift stripling sighs for, won 
The crown of empire in the game of earth, 
Should be esteem' d like youth which princes lavish 
In wayward follies, and the servile herd 



scene ii.] THE CASTILIAN. 85 

Excuse with fondness, which expands to worship 

When, tired of vapid luxuries, it subsides 

Into the decent pomp that stiffly leads 

A passionless procession ? No ; the nature 

On bitter nutriment of wisdom fed 

In its bright spring-time, starts not from the root 

A graceful sapling, but, with gnarled rind, 

Spreads to unlovely compass, till its boughs 

Shade earth and tower in air. Let us be patient 

Till greatness immature grow ripe, to trace 

In the stern progress of one regal soul 

The infancy of ages. "We are arm'd 

To teach that royal spirit to be just, 

And I'll await the issue.. 

GIRON. 

You must choose 
At once, like us, between the oath and exile. 

PADILLA. 

Exile — for me ? 

MONDEIAR. 

Such is, indeed, the choice 
Proposed to all. Great Heaven ! you will not leave us 
Eor such poor scruple ? 



86 THE CASTILIAN. [act hi. 

PADILLA. 

Exile — that is to leave 
My country, in her need, to men who count 
Her dangers as their chances of high fortune ! 

GIRON. 

You gaze on me — who mean you ? 

PADILLA. 

"Who ? Tour soul, 
Shivering from thin expanse, which guilty hope 
Lent its poor compass, knows — and knowing quails 
for! 

MONDEIAR. 

No more of this ; the embassy attends us. 

padilla (aside). 
The men return' d from Charles ! Why faints my 

heart ? 
They may determine all. 

Enter Tendilla and other Ambassadors. 

MONDEIAR. 

Tendilla, welcome ; 
"What is the Emperor's answer ? 



scene ii.] THE CASTILIAN. 87 

TENDILLA. 

JN~one — save threats 
Which, borne by Flemish emissaries, stay'd us 
Before we reach'd his presence. 

PADILLA. 

Did you fly 
And leave our prayers unutter'd ? What made death 
So terrible ? 

TENDILLA. 

It was not death appall' d us — 
But shames too vile for a Castilian tongue 
To utter ; for which Flemish arms were strung 
And Flemish eyes were greedy. 

PADILLA. 

Lost ! Undone ! 

mondeiar (aside to Padilla). 
Now, will you hesitate ? 

GIRON. 

Our oath must now 
Proscribe the Emperor. 

[Padilla, who has been sitting at the extremity of the 
circle, rises in great agitation, and is about to 
speak, when a Messenger enters. 



88 THE CASTILIAN. [act hi. 

MESSENGER. 

My lords, a youth, 
Who styles himself the general's son, craves andience. 

MONDEIAR (tO PaDILLa). 

Will you confer with him apart ? 

PADILLA. 

Not I— 
His mission's not for me ; although these eyes 
Have not embraced him since I went to battle, 
I know he would not seek me in this hour 
Of solemn duty. 

MESSENGER. 

No ; he prays the Junta 
To hear his tidings. 

mondeiar (to the Junta). 

Are you pleased to hear them ? 

{All bow. 

Bid him approach. 

{Exit Messenger. 

I'll answer for his bearing. 

Enter Alphonso. 

padilla (aside). 
He does not rush into my arms ; that's right — 
He does not glance this way ; well done. 



scene ii.] THE CASTILIAN. 89 

ALPHONSO. 

My Lords, 
The service you permitted me to pay 
The Queen Joanna makes me bold to bring 
News of a change which, for three days, has fill'd 
Her household with amazement. The dull sorrow 
That weigh' d her silken lashes down has fled, 
And eyes, which rarely caught the sunbeam, spread 
With wild intelligence. Her ashy lips 
Long seal'd in sullen silence, or unclosed 
Only to murmur indistinct despair, 
Part flush' d with crimson ; and, in rapid change, 
The broken music of her queenly life 
Breathes and commands her childhood's scenes to live 
In brightness that appals us, yet, to her, 
Seen through the parted foldings of the mists 
That have o'erwhelm'd her spirit, they appear 
As starting from a depth of years she thinks 
Have pass'd upon her lonely state. My mother, 
Who day and night keeps watch beside her couch, 
Believes her soul is kindling. 

padilla {starting up). 

It shall kindle ! 
Heaven does not mock us ! When we swore to serve 



90 THE CASTILIAN. [act hi. 

Joanna's son, we saved the mother's right 
If sense should visit her ; and now it dawns 
In happiest season. 

MONDEIAR. 

'Tis most true, our oath 
Bore such exception. 

PADILLA. 

Else we had been traitors, 
JSTot only to the stricken princess living, 
But to the dead, whom each Castilian holds 
Sacred above all living womanhood ; — 
Her from whose veins Joanna's life was drawn : 
Who, o'er the rage of battles and the toils 
Of empire, bent an aspect more imbued 
"With serious beauty earth partakes with heaven, 
Than cloister nurtured in the loveliest saint 
It shrined from human cares. Her daughter wakes, 
As from the sleep of death, to claim her throne, 
And ye sit mute, and do not bend a knee 
To bless your Grod ! 

GIRON. 

Must we disturb the course 
Of our momentous duties to enquire 
How madness glares or nickers ? E'er ye deem this 



scene it.] THE CASTILIAN. 91 

More than the gossip of a weary chamber, 

Think in what sad abasement of disease 

Joanna's spirit lies — how all regards 

Of parents, kindred, country, rank, were lost 

In childish adoration of the form 

A /reckless husband wore ; for whose slight image 

Cold, tempests, dangers, injuries and scorns 

Were pass'd unheeded, till her spirit, stung 

By jealous fury, dock'd 'mid laughter's rage, 

The locks that in their golden meshes held 

Her truant lord ; how, tranced in grief, she bore 

A child unconscious, while her thoughts were fix'd 

On her far distant scorner : how, when dead, 

She cherish'd him as living, till from dreams 

Of frightful rapture startled, to a tomb 

Beneath Granada's walls by night she bore him, 

And cursed the torches when the tempest blew 

Their flames athwart death's panoply ! And this lady 

Ye seek to rule these kingdoms ! 

PADILLA. 

Shallow scorner ! 
There's not a deed you cast on her as shame 
That does not prove her noble. If, on ship-board, 
The pictured likeness of her plighted lord 



92 THE CASTILIAN. [act in. 

Then unbeheld, grew precious as it charm'd 
Her perilous bridal voyage, till she embraced 
The living idol who in grace outshone 
The vision of the desolate sea, and thus 
The mein so sigh'd for, so assured, became, 
In spite of wrongs and scorn, an image set 
So deeply in affection, that no guilt 
Could ruffle it, no falsehood dim, nor death 
Touch with decay, — I tell your lordly wisdom, 
There is more royalty in such a love 
Supremely seated in a woman's heart 
Than in the power of monarchs. Grod alone 
Knows what she bore in that self- tyranny 
Which to the sweet rebellion of a tear 
Denied its license ; but through all she made 
Of grief a lonely throne ; whence she shall rise 
In majesty relumined ! 

GIRON. 

'Tis delusion, — 
It may be falsehood. 

PADILLA. 

Lords — I will not smite him — 
Hear me ! I wager all I have and am 
On this great issue. See ! I draw my sword, 



scene ii.] THE CASTILIAN. 93 

And swear allegiance to Castilian laws 
And to my rightful Queen, Joanna ! 

[Draws. 
GIRON. 

Treason! 

PADILLA. 

So be it answer' d if I fail to show 

The Queen restored to govern. Give me, Lords, 

A day — an hour — to wake the royal pulse 

That lives in her great nature ; if I fail, 

I will confess this charge of treason just, 

And crave a traitor's sentence. 

MONDEIAR (tO PADILLA). 

Be not rash. 

PADILLA. 

I follow Heaven that points ; at this hour's close 
Attend Joanna's palace ; let the scaffold 
Meanwhile be furnish' d for me ; and if, then, 
Te do not own her queen, let me ascend it. 

GIRON. 

Grant his mad prayer. 

MONDEIAR. 

Dear brother, pause — your foe 
Echoes your wish. 



94 THE CASTILIAN. [act hi. 

PADTLLA. 

The voice of the Eternal, 
That breathes through organs which seem framed to 

mock it, 
Speaks now in G-iron's. 

[ To the Junta. 

If you accept my life 
In pledge, stand up. 

\A 11 rise. 

I shall not ask a moment 
Beyond the hour, to hail the Queen or die. 

MONDEIAR. 

Adjourn the sitting. Brother, I will seek you 
At Queen Joanna's palace. Grod uphold you ! 

PADILLA. 

He will — He does. 

[Exeunt all but Padilla and Alphonso. 

padilla {embracing Alphonso). 

Alphonso, you have brought 
Tidings more glad than on the thirsty ear 
Of dying hope have pour'd since fortune's game 
Had empire for a prize. My nature, shiver' d 
To fragments from its centre, closes whole 
As flawless crystal. I will circle in 



scene ii.] THE CASTILIAN. 95 

The powers of new-born freedom with a band 
Firmly expanding as they grow within it, 
Beneath a diadem whence steadfast rays 
Shall, through the fiercest struggles of the realm, 
Shed reconciling calm. 

ALPHONSO. 

But if this hope 
Should fail? 

PADILLA. 

My work in this world will be done, 
And I shall pass absolved ; but do not dream it ; 
Let not such fear impede your bounding feet 
"Which should be wing'd with joy ! Among the spoils 
Brought from Valladolid, you'll find the crowns, 
Sceptres, and robes, and jewels of Castile 
And Aragon ; see them, at once, disposed 
Around the inner chamber of the Queen 
That's curtain'd from her sight — send me a Captain 
Fit to direct my soldiers — then expect me 
To wait your royal mistress. Ply ! 

[Exit Alphonso. 

padilla (alone). 

My soul 

Quivers with triumph ; yes; the woman's shatter' d 



96 THE CASTILIAN. [act hi. 

But the Queen lives! The infant through whose 

dreams 
Attendant homage shed obsequious hues 
Which made them purple, and who, waking, saw 
The brow that wore the fairest crown of earth 
Bent with a mother's earnest love, received 
A sense of royalty which touch' d will wake 
Midst the mind's ruin. Though in deep abyss 
Perturb' d the fountain of its reason heaves, 
If I can bid the shows of queenly power 
Nod o'er its waters, they will spread serene 
To give the steady reflex to the day 
Erom majesty's still mirror. 

Enter a Captain. 

CAPTAIN. 

I attend you 
At your son's bidding. 

PADILLA. 

Eight ; you know the palace 
"Where the Queen rests in Avila? 

CAPTAIN. 

The Queen ?— 
She who is sunk in madness ? 



scene ii.] THE CASTILIAN. 97 

PADILLA. 

She who, this day 
Bestored, shall bless Castile. Draw up your soldiers, 
So that they line her courtyard ; keep them voiceless, 
Till you behold aloft a banner wave — 
Then raise the shouts of triumph ; bid each man 
Fling up his helm, and cry, " Long live the Queen ! " 
And rush with all your officers to throng 
Her chamber, that she may assume her state 
Girt with Castilian heroes. 

CAPTAIN. 

May your hopes 
Prove true ! 

PADILLA. 

They shall prove true ; make haste — away ! 

[Exit Captain. 
padilla (alone). 
My life — my honour's life — my country's life 
Hang on this hour. Spirit of Isabella, 
Whom the strong peril of thy loved Castile 
Constrains to listen, shine into the soul 
Of thy distracted daughter with such look 
As after my first skirmish, 'neath the towers 
Of old Grenada, thou didst lavish on me 



98 THE CASTILIAN. [act hi. 

A stripling, gash'd and fluster' d to thy tent 
Conducted to receive more charming praise 
Than manhood ever wins ; when golden locks 
Stray' d from the heroic forehead into films 
Of sunlight, and a slender, Jewell' d hand 
That lightly fell upon my bending head 
Shot ecstacy through all my frame ! I see 
That aspect beam ; I feel that touch ; I come ! 

[Exit Padilla. 



scene in.] THE CASTILIAN. 99 



Scene III. — An Antechamber in the Palace of the Queen 
Joanna. — Ladies waiting. 

Enter Maria. 

MARIA. 

Is the Queen sleeping still ? 

LADY. 

Yes ; but she smiled 
Just now in sleep, and murmur' d out your name. 

MARIA. 

My name ? She has not known me through the weeks 
I have attended her. 

LADY. 

I am sure she named you ; 
And yet she stirr'd not while your son disposed 
Sceptres, robes, crowns, and gems beyond the curtains 
That fall around her. 

Enter Padilla. 
maria {running to Padilla). 

My dear husband — 

PADILLA. 

Hold— 
h2 



100 THE CASTILIAN. [act 

I dare not clasp you to rny heart till Heaven 
Assure our triumph. 

MARIA. 

How ? 

padilla (to the attendant Ladies). 

Please you to watch 
The Queen's awaking. When she stirs, let music, 
A lute touch'd softly to some old dull tune 
She may have heard in Flanders, meet her ear. 

[Exeunt Ladies. 
PADILLA. 

Maria, on this hour depends the fate 
Not of our household only, but Castile, 
Which lives or withers as Joanna's heart 
Shall glow or fail. Be near her when she wakes; 
Strive to dispel ignoble memories from her, 
While I abide your summons. 

[Exit Maria. Soft music within. 

padilla (alone). 

Hark the music 
Bespeaks her waking ; now be with us Heaven ! 

[Exit Padilla. 



sceue iv.] THE CASTILIAN. 101 



Scene IV. — The Chamber of the Queen Joanna. — A royal 
Chamber, divided by curtains which fall in a crescent 
round a couch on which the Queen Joanna is reclining. 
At the head of the couch is placed a Chair of State, beside 
which Donna Makia and Alphonso are standing — at its 
foot an Attendant Lady is sitting on a low stool with a 
lute, on tvhich she is playing. — She ceases to play as the 
scene opens. 

joanna {waling). 
Whence is that air ? I think I heard it play'd 
Long since ; was it by you ? 



No, madam, never ; 
'Tis of my country, Flanders. 

JOANNA. 

Flanders ? True— 
I now remember, years — long years — ago 
In your gay land I heard it. I was a bride then, 
And the most glorious face that Nature shaped 
In ecstacy, look'd down with love on mine ; 
You well may wonder — 'tis a tale so old — 
To see me living still. 



102 THE CASTILIAN. [act in. 

MAKIA. 

Tour Highness' age 
Leaves years of life to come. 

JOANNA. 

Ay years, years, years — 
For I am doom'd, to wear a wondrous life, 
Far off, it dawn'd in lustre ; then 'twas pall'd 
In blackness streak' d with horrors ; now it bursts 
From sleep by fits, when long past things flash out 
In shapes that crowd the chambers of my brain 
To agony that spends its force in throbbing ; 
And then I sleep again — long dreamless sleeps — 
Which must endure for years ; so Time sweeps by 
And leaves me a dull monument to keep 
His saddest records ; none would own me now 
For Isabella's daughter. 

MARIA. 

All who knew 
Her image living, trace it in your Highness. 

JOANNA. 

JSTo ; I alone of those that breathe have known her ; 

And I can tell you things no living eye 

But mine beheld. When the world's mighty strife 



scene iv.] THE CAST1LIAN. 103 

'Twixt Moor and Christian, in which radiant saints 

Vouchsafed to mingle with our hosts, was crown' d 

By cession, in earth's breathless silence, made 

Of tamed Grenada, by my mother's side 

I sat, and saw the enormous towers unscathed 

As still defying siege, beneath the range 

Of ice-clad mountains, which with peaks of fire 

Look'd pinnacled for angels' feet. Our veterans 

Stood like mail'd statues, till the giant cross 

Of virgin silver, which my father raised 

Before him in his battles, shone erect 

Against heaven's azure, on the Alhambra's top, 

Flinging its sacred shadow on the dome 

Which sullenly heaved under it ; then all 

Fell on their knees, and down scar-furrow' d cheeks 

Large tears roll'd slowly, as the hymn of praise 

Floated on air ; but none advanced a step 

Toward the surrender' d gates, till thence appear' d 

Hundreds of Christian captives freed from depths 

Of Moorish dungeons, shrinking in strange sunlight, 

"Who totter' d to my mother's feet to bless 

Her face, like those, they said, which beam'd in sleep 

That follow' d torture. Then, what shouts arose ! 

"What endless torrent of plumed troops swept by us, 



104 THE CASTILIAN. [act in. 

With cataract roar ! It rushes on my brain- 
It racks me — lay me down. 

[Maria assists Joanna to lie down and adjusts the pillows. 
JOANNA. 

Your touch is gentle — 
What are you call'd ? 

MARIA. 

Maria de Pacheco ; 
I've watch'd a month beside your Highness. 



JOANNA. 



Ha! 



I think I heard — it must be long ago 

You call'd an infant by my slighted name ; 
Hoes she live still ? 

maria (bursting into tears). 
In heaven. 

JOANNA. 

Tie ! do not weep, 
You see I do not weep who outlive all ; 
I have not shed a tear since that long night 
Which I endured beside Medina's postern, 
When, while the snow weigh'd down the fluttering rob. 
That clad me, I defied the minion lords 



scene iv.] THE CA8TILIAN. 105 

Who strove to win me back to the sad couch 

I left to make my lonely way to him 

Whose soul was pledged to mine ; they tore me thence ; 

But I escaped their feeble bonds again, 

And traversed land and sea to find — to find — 

A Flemish wanton snaring Philip's soul 

With golden tresses. See ! She kneels and prays 

With baby prettiness and honied words 

For pardon — never ! Doff those glistening locks 

And stand, unshaded by a curl, the gaze 

Of her you have stabb'd ! I am a Princess still 

And will have justice ! What if Philip frown? 

I like him best when frowning — 

Do I wander ? 
I am far sunk in years, and age has licence 
To babble of old times. 

MARIA. 

All women shared 
The wrongs you bore from Philip. 

JOANNA. 

Shared ? what mean you ? 
When did I crave a partner for my grief, 
Or talk of wrongs ? I was too wan for Philip — 



106 THE CASTILIAN. [act in. 

The beautiful ! He gazes ou me now — 
Smile — smile — so for eternity ! 

MARIA. 

In death 
Be all his frailties shrouded ! 

JOANNA. 

Death ! You are fair, 
Yet, from your lips, the dismal echo breathes 
Of the world's lie. This cold and barren earth 
And the dull roof of clouds that clip it round, 
Leaden and low, to shroud it from God's azure, 
King with that falsehood ; he was sick and lay 
In trance, and all who envied me conspired 
To call it death, and laid him in a grave — 
But thence I pluck' d him — pale — but not more pale 
Than I have seen him when I watch' d his couch 
After long revels, whence he woke to know me, 
And sometimes thank me. This poor heart still beats, 
And, by its beating, I'm assur'd he lives. 

MAEIA. 

Since you so fervently desire his life 

I'll wish him living ; but yourself entomb' d him 

In marble at Grenada. 



scene iv.] THE CASTILIAN. 107 

JOANNA. 

So — you have heard 
That rare device ; how, through each day eucamp'd, 
I curtain' d him, and bore him on by night, 
Loathing all roofs, that I might laugh at those 
Who watch' d his waking. 'Tis a dismal journey — 
The torches nicker through its mists — the sleet 
Descends to quench them — I'll not track it on — 
Tell me how fares the world, what path your husband 
Treads of its dusty ways ? 

MAEIA. 

He is one whose name 
Tour Highness may have heard — John de Padilla — 
Whose youth won glory in the Moorish war, 
And whose life now awaits your Highness' service. 

JOANNA. 

I knew a boy so named, whose dawning valour 
My parents cherish' d when they lived in camp 
At Medun ; can he live still ? 

MAEIA. 

He attends 
Your gracious bidding. 



108 THE CASTILIAN. [act in. 

JOANNA. 

Let him come this instant ; 
I little dream'd a nobleman who knew me 
In my bright childhood lives. 

MARIA (to ALPHONSO). 

Inform Padilla 
The Queen commands his presence. 

[Exit Alphonso. 
JOANNA. 

Queen ! I'll take 
My state to welcome him ; set me my chair, 
I'll fill it like a throne, and shame my mockers. 

[Maria places the Chair of State in front, and assists 
Joanna to take it. 

Enter Padilla, followed by Alphonso. 

padilla (kneeling before Joanna). 
I pray your Majesty to look with grace 
On your distracted subjects. 

JOANNA. 

Mine ? You mock me ; 
I am only sovereign of these rooms, — these ladies 
My few poor subjects. Let me look upon you ; 
'Tis said you are the glorious youth who won 



scene iv.] THE CASTILIAN. 109 

Two crescent standards 'neath Grenada's walls 
With marvellous prowess ; rise ; it cannot be — 
Those battles have been hush'd an age, and you 
Are in your prime still ; yet you are like the boy 
My mother loved to praise. 

PADILLA. 

I am the same 
Whom that rich guerdon bless' d. Let me assure 
My own the happy brow on which it lighted 
By one most sacred memory which none other 
Of my degree can cherish. When the sovereigns, 
After Grenada's capture, held their court 
In radiant Seville, I once shared the feast 
Of their small household, and when sunset closed 
The pastimes gracious Royalty had plann'd 
For festal youth, and I was shrinking homeward 
Full of delight, I saw the Queen with smile 
That lent authority's augustest presence 
The charm of angel, beckon me to wait 
Upon her steps ; — I follow' d to the shrine 
At which, with her, the royal children kneel' d 
In vesper adoration. Softest light 
Shed by one silver lamp reveal' d the walls 



110 THE CASTILIAN. [act in. 

Of alabaster, storied with the deeds 

Of saints and martyrs, carved in white as stainless 

As the fantastic wonders nature shapes 

In Alpine caverns. By your side was John, 

Tour rosy brother ; opposite to him 

Tour sister Isabella bent a head 

So stately and so sad, as if she felt 

Chill shadow of her destiny to wear 

The crown of Portugal with speedy change 

For cypress and for amaranth. With arm 

Tightening about her neck, and eye upturn 'd, 

Stood Kate the youngest. 



I behold them all — 
I see you kneeling with us ; and a strain 
Wafted from childhood murmurs through my heart 
And makes it lighter. 

I think I must have dream' d 
Strange, heavy dreams ;— for it seems yesterday 
"When we were ranged beneath my mother's eye 
Obedient children ; Kate scarce totter' d then- 
She may live still ; oh tell me, is there one 
To call me sister ? 



scene iv.] THE CASTILIAN. Ill 

PADILLA. 

Katherine is queen in England. 

JOANNA. 

England ? I was in England once — three months 
Eeasted at Windsor, by a monarch styled 
The Seventh Henry. Oh that I had perish' d 
Before I touch' d its shore ! 

PADILLA. 

I pray you, wherefore ? 

JOANNA. 

Because death then had clasp' d me in an hour 

Of Philip's love. Eor weeks we had been toss'd 

Upon the wintry seas, from Elanders bound 

Eor Spain, with no companions but our sailors, 

Eough, weather-beaten men, with grizzly locks 

And tawny limbs, whose kindness raised my wonder, 

Eor never from my women's tenderest care 

Eelt I such true observance as wild ocean 

Had taught her mates ; and Philip's heart was soften' d 

By dear remorse that made me bless the storms 

That waken' d it, till lightning struck our mast 

In the black valley of two mountain seas, 

Lit into hungry crimson by strange fire 



112 THE CASTILIAN. [act ra. 

That reveU'd in the dripping cordage ; changed 

The sails to sheets of tatter' d flame, and show'd 

Gaunt visages of brave men whom the fate 

That yawn'd and glared around us struck to shape*-. 

Immovable with horror; in that instant 

By flash of a huge splinter, as it fell, 

I saw my husband's face bent down on mine 

With such remorseful beauty as o'erpaid 

My years of weary sorrow. How I cursed 

The dismal beach of Weymouth, where I woke 

Prom happy trance to find myself in life ! 

PADILLA. 

Lady, you then were on your way to Spain 
To solemnise your heirship of the crown 
Which now is yours. Oh let it from your brow 
Shine on Castile ! 

JOANNA. 

My brow ? — you cannot mean it — 
My crown ?— how mine ? Where is my brother John ? 
Is he not heir of all ? 

PADILLA. 

Prom noblest hopes 
A nation ever cherish' d in its prince, 






scene iv. 2 THE CASTILIAN. 1 1 3 

Ere his first year of bridal joy had flown, 
Grod call'd him, and the youth unmurmuring left 
Earth's fairest lot ; and, in his tomb, a babe, 
The blighted fruit of happy love, awaits 
A two-fold waking. 

JOANNA. 

Now I see it all ; 
My crown is wrested from me by a father, 
And he is mighty. 

PADILLA. 

Ferdinand is dead. 



Dead ? When he died, did no one urge my right ? 

You said my sister Isabella died — 

Where was my son — on whom I have not gazed 

Since his stern beauty fill'd my wasted arms ? 

It rises on me now with face that frown' d 

In answer to the smiles my poor heart lavish' d, 

To smite it ! Charles usurps his mother's throne — 

Tell me no more ; let me lie down again, 

And dream away my days. 

PADILLA. 

He held the crown 



114 THE CASTILIAN. [act m 

For you, till mercy should dispel the clouds 
Which now are melting in the gracious sunlight 
Shed on your spirit. We had honour' d still 
His glorious youth, but that he left Castile 
To foreign minions ; against these we rose ; 
And from their grasp we have redeem' d the crown 
For you, our sovereign lady, whom we pray 
To wear it. 

joanna (starting from the chair). 
Won for me ? 

[At a sign from Padilla, Alphonso draws aside the 
curtains which had divided the chamber, disclosing 
a magnificent saloon furnished with large mirrors 
— terminating in a balcony, beyond which the 
towers of the Cathedral are seen — the sceptres, 
crown, and regalia of Castile and Arayon dis- 
posed around the saloon. 

PADILLA. 

Behold— 
The ancient symbols of the regal power 
Eescued for you ! 

JOANNA. 

Can this be real ? 

[Alphonso presents the Crown of Castile kneeling io 
Joanna, who takes it in her hand; her fingers 
play hurriedly over the jewels. 

'Tis real ; 
This is the crown which great Ximenes placed 



scene iv.] THE CASTILIAN. 1 1 5 

Upon my forehead in Toledo's square, 
When I was hail'd as heiress of these realms ; 
How the vast pomp expands before my soul, 
Which swells to compass it ! And this is mine ! 
My own ! Brave soldier, place it on my head ! 



padilla (placing the Crown on Joanna's 
Forgive me ; my hands tremble with delight ; 
Permit my wife to fix that robe. [To Alphonso] The 

signal ! 

[Alphonso waves a banner from the balcony; Maria 
arrays Joanna in one of the royal robes ; as she 
does so Joanna catches a view of herself in a 
mirror and stands gazing with delight. Shouts 
arise without and cries of " Long live the Queen ! " 

JOANNA. 

Is that my form — the form I thought decay'd 
And shrunk in age ? What shouts are those ? 

PADILLA. 

The voice 
Of your enraptured people. 

IShouts continue — martial music — Padilla's Captain 
rushes in with the Banner of Castile and ivaves it 
over the Queen — The room becomes full of Officers 
and Soldiers. 

PADILLA. 

See the flag 
Of your Castile ! 

i2 



116 THE CASTILIAN. [act in. 

JOANNA. 

I bless it. Let the gates 
Be thrown wide open ; let my subjects throng 
My palace, and approve me while I swear 
To reign for them. 

[ In a pause of the shouts the distant music of the Cathedral 
organ is heard. 

JOANNA. 

Pray you one moment — hush — 
Those sounds refresh my thirsty soul — forgive me— 
Thank Glod I weep again ! 

[Members of the Holy Junta enter and kneel to the Queen 
— Shouts n 



PADILLA, 

The Holy Junta 
Who have preserved your kingdoms, claim your 
blessing. 

JOANNA. 

They have it ; I must ask their wisdom's aid 
To teach me how to rule. 

[Alphonso bears to Joanna the Sceptre of Aragon. 
PADILLA. 

The holy sceptre 
Of Aragon. 



scene iv.] THE CASTILIAN. 117 

joanna (taking it). 
Yes ; this at Saragossa 
I swore to wield in mercy, when I deem'd it 
A gorgeous plaything. I will keep that oath. 

[Mondeiar brings forward the Banner of Toledo ; and 
is about to lay it at Joanna' s/eei. 

PADILLA. 

The Delegate from your own Toledo lays 
Its banner at your feet. 

JOANNA. 

No ; let it float 
On the proud air — the banner of my birthplace, 
That I may hail its star of gold that flash' d 
Upon me in my infancy with hope 
Of grandeur now fulfill'd. 

[Mondeiae waves the Banner of Toledo. 

Beloved Toledo — 
Your Queen shall fill you with her state ! — for there 
I'll fix my Court. Meanwhile behold my general 

[To Padilla. 

To whom I trust my armies ; my chief lady 

[To Maria. 

Who shall direct my household. 

[Padilla and Maria kneel on each side of the Queen, 
and kiss her hands — Soldiers and Citizens pour in 
— the organ swells into triumphant music — banners 
are waved in different parts of the Saloon. 



118 THE CASTILIAN. 



[ACT III. 



joanna stands in the front with her hands clasped and 
exclaims 

Mother, bend 

From your eternal seat to reign with me ! 

[The drop-scene falls. 



ACT IV. 

Month is supposed to elapse between the Third and Fourth Acts. 
The Scenes of the Fourth Act lie throughout in Toledo. 



ACT IV. 

Scene I. — An Antechamber in the Alcazar of Toledo, now the 
Palace of the Queen Joanna; in the middle of the bach- 
scene folding doors guarded by Sentinels. 

Enter Donna Maeia — she attempts to pass. 

MARIA. 

Give me free passage to the Queen. 

SENTINEL. 

My orders 
Preclude all passage. 

MARIA. 

Orders! who dares give them? 
Who has empower' d you to deny to me, 
Wife of the Queen's Commander, while he sweeps 
Her foes before him, leave to pay her service ? 

SENTINEL. 

Don Giron has directed that none pass, 



122 THE CASTILIAN. [act iv. 

Save those who bear a summons to the council 
The Queen this hour will hold. 

MARIA. 

The Queen hold council ! 
Do'st mean that Griron represents the Queen 
Fit to embody royal will in acts ? 
I must pass to her. 

SENTINEL. 

Griron comes ; if he 
Accord you access, I shall gladly yield it. 



Enter Giron. 

MARIA. 

You are well met, Don Griron, to assure me 
If, by your order, I am denied free way 
To attend my royal mistress ? 






Yes. — When trifles 
Of womanly observance claim your aid 
You shall have leave to render it ; this hour 
The state requires the Queen's unruffled wisdom ; 
And I must pray you to defer attendance 
Till graver duties be fulfill' d. 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 123 

MAKIA. 

O mockery 
Of council ! Well you know her mournful spirit, 
Expanded for awhile by generous warmth, 
Has closed in foldings that admit no access 
To knowledge of state matters ; and you seize 
The moment when the afflicted sense has shrunk 
Most deeply into gloom, and when the chief 
Whose accents might recal it, is detain' d 
By duty from her court, to practise on her 
Some most ignoble treachery. 



I respect 
Tour privilege to rail ; but weightier cares 
Oblige me to entreat you wait my leisure 
For apt reply. 

Enter Soldier. 

SOLDIER. 

The general just arrived 
Desires to see Don Griron. 

MARIA. 

My dear husband ? 



124 THE CASTILIAN, [act iv. 

GIEON. 

Tell him his lady waits, and though I wish 

A speedy conference with him on state matters, 

I will not mar their meeting. 

{Exit Soldier. 

Farewell, lady, 
Soon you will know me better. 

MARIA. 

Know thee better — 
No, Giron ; I may see thy giant webs 
Immesh our fortunes in their threads, or crush' d 
To atoms by an honest hand's chance grasp, 
But for the soul that weaves them, no event 
Can show it clearer. 

Enter Padilla. 
maria (embracing him). 

"What delight to clasp you 
After four weary weeks of absence, cheer' d 
Only by such dim knowledge of your triumphs 
As rumour bore ! 

PADILLA. 

Have you received no letters ? 
Oh wicked craft ! — But tell me of your charge, 
In which I live or die — how fares the Queen ? 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 125 

MARIA. 

Alas ! there lies our grief. The courtly grace 

With which she bless' d your banners when we parted 

Shone through that evening's festival and charm' d 

Her wondering guests ; and during the five days 

She after spent in Avila, her carriage 

Remain' d most noble ; though sometimes she sat 

Abstracted, as if truant fancies play'd 

With distant things as present, if a word 

Eeminded her of regal state, her soul 

Collected in a moment all its strength 

And started into majesty. She seem'd 

Eapt in delicious musing through the journey 

Thence to this city of her youth, and vow'd, 

Before she sought repose to pay her thanks 

In that august Cathedral where the Church 

Embraced her soul in Baptism. As she kneel' d 

Before the venerable font, her face 

Shone with soft ecstasy, which so possess' d 

Her frame in its composure, that men gazed 

In awe, as if a bodiless spirit shed 

Celestial thoughts among them. When we reach' d 

This palace of her infancy, wild change 

Came over her ; she bounded with delight 



126 THE CASTILIAN. [act 

Like that of a young peasant girl return' d 
Home from first service and array'd as queen 
Of village feast ; now she some relic kiss'd 
Of baby times : now burst out into sobs 
Mingled with laughter ; last in vivid speech 
Told of august Columbus arid the birds 
Of dazzling colours that he brought from realms 
Ear westward, till her fancy seem'd to ache 
With its own splendour, and, worn out, she slept 
The gentle sleep of childhood ; whence, alas ! 
She woke still more estranged. 



Did she not sit 
Queen of the tournament our city held 
In honour of her coming ? 

MAEIA. 

As an image 
Shaped by the sculptor in unconscious semblance 
Of majesty ; her soul but once awoke 
From heaviest dreaming ; — when the conqueror kneel' d 
Before her for his crown, a smile as faint 
As sparkle that the moon's young crescent casts 
On stedfast water circled on her face 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 127 

In flickering sweetness. Never has she sat 
In council till this hour, when Giron dares 
Usurp her name for summons. 

PADILLA. 

So dissolves 
The snow-wreath which I thought a sacred band 
To gird our cause ! Giron has stamp' d her seal 
On orders which have drawn away my soldiers, 
Troop after troop, till I was left as bare 
As a thick grove in winter, sadly deck'd 
By some few desperate friends that like dank leaves, 
Which, in their fluttering yellow, cleave through rain 
And frost to moss-clad boughs, would not forsake me ; 
But I would stand alone against the world 
If my Queen's soul were clear. 

Enter Soldier. 

SOLDIER. 

My lord, the troops 
The Eegent has combined, in mighty force, 
Advance upon Toledo. 

PADILLA. 

"Who commands them ? 



128 THE CASTILIAN. [act iv. 

SOLDIER. 

'Tis said the Count de Haro. 

PADILLA. 

A great captain — 
How many soldiers have we near Toledo ? 

SOLDIER. 

The Junta's troops — 

PADILLA. 

The Junta's — say the Queen's. 

• SOLDIER. 

I rather should say Griron's, for his friends 
Command each band, and all obey his orders ; 
They number scarce six thousand. 



PADILLA. 

Tell Don Giron 



That I await him here. 



SOLDIER. 

My lord— 

PADILLA. 

Obey me, 
Or my own sword shall teach you duty ; surely 
I am your general still. 






scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 129 

SOLDIER. 

My lord, he comes. 

PADILLA. 

Leave us ; and you, my love, withdraw awhile ; 
I must unmask the traitor. 

MARIA. 

Smite him down 
With one proud look of goodness. 

[Exit Maria. 
Enter Giron. 

GIRON. 

"Welcome home ! 

PADILLA. 

Before I take your greeting, answer me ; 
Why, while our enemies remain unquell'd, 
Were all my veteran soldiers order' d hither 
And officer' d afresh ? Why was I left 
To learn, on chanced return, what dim report 
Had scarce suggested, that an army raised 
To sweep the Queen's battalions from Castile 
Bursts on Toledo ? 

GIRON. 

I shall make reply 
To no one save the Queen, from whom I hold 



130 THE CASTILIAN. [act iv. 

Supreme commission to command the troops 
And curb the citizens, — and with it hold 
The right to counsel you to seek the shelter 
Tour neighbouring mansion offers. 

PADILLA. 

Am I awake ? 
Commission from the Queen ? Supreme commission ? 
The power to bid me shrivel into sloth 
While the war thunders ? JSTo ; some desperate fraud 
Gives semblance of authority to wrong 
That passes fancy. 

giron {showing a scroll). 

There is my commission ; 
Gaze on it ; you will find it bears true impress. 

PADILLA. 

The same that drew my soldiers from my camp 
To wait your orders, but 'twas not impress'd 
By the Queen's will ; I'll learn this very instant, 
Prom her own lips, if her most noble nature 
Sanction this deed. 

GIRON. 

She is reposing now ; 
You cannot see her. 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 131 

PADILLA. 

This atrocious scroll 
Bears date this day ; if she could do this act 
She can avow it. Sentinels, make way — 
He bleeds who stops me. 

[Padilla rushes past the Sentinels through the folding 
doors. 

giron (alone). 

G-o — you will find her lips 
Quivering with Giron' s name if I have train' d 
Her feeble sense aright ; else they'll be dumb. 

Enter a Captain of Giron's guard. 

CAPTAIN. 

My lord, the Eegent's army like a flood 
Pours down the black declivities that front 
The northern gate ; your soldiers stand in arms, 
Impatient for their leader. 

GIRON. 

He is ready — 
My armour ! (CaUing.) 

[Giron's Squire enters with his armour, and arms him 
while he s% 



Do my captains hold the posts 
I order'd ? 

K 2 



132 THE CASTILIAN. [act iv. 

CAPTAIN. 

All is as you wish. 

giron (speaking in yreat excitement). 

How light 
This armour sits ! Methinks the blood that springs 
Prom Spain's remotest heroes never rush'd 
Through any of my glorious ancestors 
"With such triumphant prophesy as now 
It swells in mine. My horse — my noblest horse — 
Is he attired for war ? 

CAPTAIN. 

At the Alcazar gate 
In conscious pomp he waits you. 

GIRON. 

G-lorious steed ! 
I have reserved thy mettle for this conflict, 
Which shall avenge us both on restless hours 
When, in the gentleness of arrowy speed, 
I have felt thy hidden valour under me, 
And known thee panting for a leader's form 
Thou shalt soon carry — for thy master comes 
No slight lieutenant, but a chief to win 
An empire in thy saddle. 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 133 

Enter Padilla with the scroll. 

GIRON. 

May I take 
My Queen's commission ? 

padilla (giving the scroll). 

Take it ; by what spell, 
What wicked blandishment, you snared her sense 
I know not ; but her lips, when I implored 
That she would name her general, murmur' d — Giron ; 
Take it — my life goes with it. 

GIRON. 

Seek your home — 
I will protect it. 

FADILLA. 

You? 

GIRON. 

Yes— I— 

Before this night shall fall, your slow- won glories 

Shall pale before the triumphs that await 

Castile's first son in arms. I feel them crown me ! 

[Exit Gtiron followed by the Captain. 
PADILLA. 

Yet stay ! — I would have pray'd to serve beneath you! 







134 THE CASTILIAN. [act iv. 

May Grod protect the brave men you command 
From swift destruction ! 

Enter Maria. 

MARIA. 

What has Griron dared ? 

PADILLA. 

His daring is made legitimate ; he holds 
The Queen's commission superseding mine, 
And has gone forth to lead our mortal conflict 
Against the Eegent. 

MARIA. 

You'll not suffer it — 
Joanna means it not. 

PADILLA. 

Alas ! I sought her 
And in such tremulous accents as my ear, 
Attent with agony could catch, she gave 
The monstrous parchment sanction. 

MARIA. 

Trample on it ! 
Proclaim it filch' d by most unrighteous practice 
From a distracted mind which Grod absolves 
From reason's duty ! 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 135 

PADILLA. 

Never ; I staked all — 
My life, my honour, my dear country's peace, 
On the Queen's waken' d spirit ; with her title 
Graced the wild tumults of the crowd, and made 
Rebellion consecrate : and while a thread 
Of consciousness within her soul can shape 
A mandate, I will honour it as law 
Announced by voice of angel. 

MARIA. 

Is it so ? 
You were not made for times like these. 

PADILLA. 

Not made 
For any time Maria, but for life 
Of which this is the threshold whence the gates 
Of the eternal open. Hark ! the streets 

[Loud tumult without. 

Are throng' d with battle. 

Enter Mondeiae. 

PADILLA. 

Brother, you see how wildly 
Change courses over us in this slight world, 
For, in a little fragment of an hour, 



136 THE CASTILIAN. [act it. 

You find me stripp'd of station, trust, command, 
By arts of Giron. 

MONDEIAR. 

This same hour has brought 
Deep retribution. Giron, drunk with joy 
Of base success, impell'd the unsteady soldiers 
Whom he had parcell'd out to silken captains, 
Blindly against the Regent's troops, who, wing'd 
With impulse from the mountain, broke their lines 
At the first charge ; they fled, and left our gates 
Tree to the victors, who are rushing through them 
To threaten the Alcazar. Hark ! They come ! 

PADILLA. 

The spoilers in Toledo ! sword, come forth ; 
I ask no warrant now to draw thee ! 

[Draws. 

(To Maria.) Dearest, 
Attend the Queen ; keep from her ear the crime 
And anguish of this hour. Ancestral city, 
I will deliver thee or die ! 

[Padilla rushes out, followed by Mondeiar — tumult continues. 

maria {alone). 

In arms ! 
Heaven only grant that he remain in arms, 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 137 

Sustain this righteous impulse of his valour, 
And let what men call Fortune hurl its blows 
Madly against us. 

Enter Sentinel. 

SENTINEL. 

Lady, we are betray' d ; 
While at the Northern Grate the battle raged, 
A band of soldiers through the Alcazar's portal 
That opens on the Tagus, left unbarr'd 
By treachery as I think, with furtive steps, 
Found entrance to the chamber where the treasures 
Of regal state lie heap'd, and thence approach 
The person of the Queen ; I have no force 
To meet them — pray you fly. 

MAEIA. 

" Fly," saidst thou, craven ? 
My place is with my Queen. 

SENTINEL. 

Oh that our captains 
Had mettle such as yours ! 

MARIA. 

No speech — come with me. 

[Exeunt. 



!38 THE CASTILIAN. [act iv. 



Scene II. — The great Square before the Cathedral of Toledo ; 
Citizens flying up the steps of the Cathedral followed by 
Soldiers in confix 



Enter Padilla, with sword 

PADILLA. 

Turn, recreants, or my sword shall make yon know 
The coward's peril worst. Do my eyes dazzle, 
Or is there a plumed officer who shares 
This shameful flight ? 

[Seizes Villena in the crowd. 

I'll give thee judgment here — 
Die! 

VILLENA. 

Have mercy, brave Padilla ! 

PADILLA. 

Faugh ! Yillena — 
Thou art not worthy such a death, and thus 
I fling thee back again to reptile being — 
Live, craven gamester! 

[Flings Villena from him. 

I will waste no breath 
On soldiers train' d in arms — let them fly on 






scene ii.] THE CASTILIAN. 139 

And cowering wait with yonder palsied wretch 
The conqueror's lash. Craftsmen of brave Toledo, 
Through whose stout hearts these glory-cinctured 

towers 
Have shed the mighty thoughts of ages, guard them 
With your rude weapons ! Do not seek for swords ; 
And if you have no axe or bludgeon, use 
The naked energy of arms grown strong 
From weakness they have circled, to defend 
Your wives and sisters stricken dumb with fear 
Of woes they dare not shape, — and strike with me ! 

[Padilla mshes out, followed by the People. 



140 THE CASTILIAN. [act iv. 



Scene III. — Tlie Antechamber of the Alcazar, as before. 

Enter Maria. 

maeia (alone). 
Snatch'd from us in a moment, with her reason 
Darken' d for this life ! Melancholy Queen, 
Why wert thou startled from thy world of dreams 
To emptier mockeries. 

Enter Mondeiar. 

MONDEIAR. 

Is the Queen safe ? 



G-one, — 
And all the regal gauds. 

MONDEIAR. 

Sad chance ! Padilla, 
Turning the tide of battle through the streets, 
Caught an uncertain rumour from the crowd 
Of danger menacing the Queen, and sent me 
Hither to shield her. 






scene ur.l THE CASTILIAN. 141 

MARIA. 

Giron's treacherous art 
Has miss'd its aim, but in its failure, given 
Our royal lady to the conqueror's grasp, 
Which will consign her to a living tomb 
"Whence never voice shall issue. 

Enter Soldier. 

SOLDIER. 

Our city's saved: 
Its streets are freed from spoilers, and its gates 
Secured and sentinell'd ; beyond all's lost. 
Don Griron, when surrounded, madly spurr'd 
His fiery courser up the rocky steeps 
Which boldest climbers shun ; and though his horse 
Leap'd with heroic rage from crag to crag, 
Striking strange fire that flash' d beneath his hoofs 
Like lightning, near the topmost ridge the steed, 
Trampling on slender ledge that shiver' d, fell ; 
And the infuriate general of an hour 
Lies crush' d beneath him. 

[Exit Soldier. 
MARIA. 

Then my husband stands 



142 THE CASTILIAN. [act iv. 

Supreme, alone, and from the cloud of treachery 
The hero shall emerge ! 

Enter Tendilla and Captains. 

TENDILLA. 

Is Padilla yet 
Eeturn'd from victory ? 

MARIA. 

Not yet; he stops not 
While any toils of nobleness remain 
To count those done. 

TENDILLA. 

We'll heap new honours on him 
Giron is dead ; our foes command the heights 
A furlong from our gates, and our sole hope 
Is his consent to lead us. 

MARIA. 

He shall give it. 
Will all the troops acknowledge him as leader, 
Sole and supreme ? 

TENDILLA. 

All who from martial virtue 
Eequire the sense of honour, will be proud 



scene in.] THE CASTILIAN. 143 

Erankly to lay aside all claims for duty 
To him in whose clear sovereignty of soul 
They place implicit trust ; but there are veterans 
With sinews firm and courage nicely temper' d 
By discipline and use, who want the touch 
Of valour's generous impulse ; these complain 
Of long arrears of pay, and will not serve 
Without some present largess. 

MARIA. 

I have jewels. 
Take and divide them. Could I coin my life-blood, 
How gladly would I pour it forth to win 
Padilla means of glory ! 

TENDILLA. 

Noble lady, 
If the imparadised spirits of our saints 
Now read the generous promptings of your soul, 
How must they wish the treasures of their shrines 
Devoted to sustain them ! 

MARIA. 

True — the shrines — 
I'll make it piety to borrow thence 
Aid for this mighty need. Padilla comes — 



144 THE CASTILIAN. [act iv. 

No word to him, if you would have him yours, 
Of the "base hirelings' claims, or of the treasures 
"Which, well I know, he would not touch in thought 
To win earth's throne ; for he holds endless ruin 
Lies in such sacrilege. 

Enter Padilla. 

PADILLA. 

Has danger reach' d 
The person of the Queen ? 

MARIA. 

She is borne hence 
By soldiers who, it seems, found noiseless entrance 
Through treachery of her guards. 



Did she endure 
The outrage tamely ? Did no flashing rage 
Confound the traitors ? 

MARIA. 

jNo ; I flung my arms 
Around her, and conjured the men who throng' d 
Her chamber to retire, and saw them falter 
A moment in their purpose. Then her eyes, 
"Which had been glazed in vacant dulness, swam 






scene in.] THE CASTILIAN. 145 

In sad affection for me ; but they caught 
The blaze of jewels in the sceptre raised 
Before her couch, and flicker' d into joy 
"Weak as the pleasure which a toy awakes 
In a sick infant. So she pass'd away 
Smiling and silent, with the glittering symbols 
Of majesty around her, which the robbers 
Obsequious bore. Alas ! her reason's sunk 
Into a slumber which will break no more 
Till seraph harps disperse it. 

padilla {flinging down Ms sword). 

There — lie there — 
My sword has lost its sovereign ; it has won 
Toledo's freedom from this night's foul ravage, 
And shall be drawn no more. 

MARIA. 

It shall be drawn 
To save Castile ; you have no rival left ; 
Griron is dead. 

PADILLA. 

Dead — rival — how these sounds 
Expound each other ! Rivalry with us 



146 THE CASTILIAN. [act iv. 

"Was but a race for death, which Griron wins 
A little foremost. 

TENDILLA. 

All the Captains, moved 
By one strong impulse, in our utmost need, 
Pray you to lead the troops. 

PADILLA. 

Against my king ? 
No refuge left — no thin disguise — to veil 
The front of treason ? 

MONDEIAK. 

You already wear 
Its ban ; for Charles himself pronounces all 
Who join'd this quarrel traitors, and his Regent 
"Who in the councils of the camp presides, 
By this day's proclamation, offers pardon, 
Treasure, and honour, and release of captives, 
To any who shall bring you to atone 
Treason with instant death. 

PADILLA. 

I have long felt 
My course would have this issue, and long musings 



scene in.] THE CASTILIAN. 147 

Have braced me to endure it ; I am ready ; 
My work on earth is done. 

MARIA. 

Think upon us ! 

MOKDEIAR. 

Think of the sacred things these walls enfold, 
Huge relics of Art's infancy that speak 
The great Castilian soul before the Saracen 
Struggling from dense barbaric gloom to make 
Valour and beauty deathless ; tombs that breathe 
Of deeds unchronicled, and marbles worn 
By kneeling saints, in which our fathers traced 
Old martyrdoms and crowns ! Before you drop 
The sword that rescued these from this day's rapine 
Guess the triumphant insults of to-morrow ! 

TENDILLA. 

Feel for the citizens of your famed birthplace 

And peasants born in neighbouring fields now shelter' d 

Beneath its towers, who drink their native air 

With prouder joy because your childhood breathed it; 

Men who so prized your fame that when you gave 

Adhesion to our enterprise, embraced it, 

L 2 



148 THE CASTILIAN. [act iv. 

Asking no reason for the strife which one 
So loved thought righteous — who, if now forsaken 
By him they trusted, must endure the doom 
The Regent threatens. 

PADILLA. 

What? 

TENDILLA. 

His order runs 
That one of every ten who took arms with you, 
Chosen by lot, shall on the gibbet die ; 
While public scourging, dealt by soldiers' arms 
Brand the more cursed survivors — for the crime 
Of thinking you their father ! 

PADILLA. 

Have I done this ? 
passion wing'd to pierce a state's repose 
How little, at the moment, seems the touch 
That breaks the placid water, and how vast 
The eddies that sweep round it ! I cannot leave 
Those who so trusted me, but will win peace 
For them, or perish with them. I accept 
The post you offer ; let me have an hour 



scene in.] THE CASTILIAN. 149 

Eor household cares, and I will order all things 
For one great sally. 

TJENDILLA. 

I shall cheer the hearts 
Of thousands with this news. 

(Aside to Maria.) Lady, the rest 
We trust to you. 

MARIA, 

Pear not. 

[Exit Tendilla and Captain. 

My noble husband, 
Let me embrace you with a heart more proud 
Than yet has leap'd to yours. Tou stand apart 
In your own majesty, a tower of refuge 
Which beams from Heaven illumine. 



Say I stand 
Upon the arid sands a desolate mark 
For the next lightning ; look I as of yore ? 
Lives in my voice one old familiar tone ? 
I am all rebel now. 

MARIA. 

No, true ; most true 
To your own greatness and your country's need. 



150 THE CASTILIAN. [act iv. 

Alphonso seeks us ; do not cloud his spirit 
"With your unjust misgivings. 

PADILLA. 

Tou are right ; 
I will not mar the precious gift of youth 
To know disaster only when it strikes, 
Not when it threatens. 

Enter Alphonso. 

PADILLA. 

My dear son, we left 
Your birthday feast untasted ; we'll renew it ; 
We four are join'd again, and we'll ensure 
One hour of hme-fraught comfort. From the ramparts, 
Where I will have our evening banquet spread, 
We shall behold the flowering shrubs that droop' d 
Over our household feasts. That sunset time 
In which our old domestic joys were shatter'd 
When foulest outrage summon' d me to arm, 
Returns with heavenly lustre that bespeaks 
Its golden peace. Mondeiar, inform the captains 
Soon after sunset, I will ask their aid 
To fix the morning's battle ; then come to us. 

[Exit Mondeiar. 

Each pathway of our garden lives before me, 



scene in.] THE CAST1LIAN. 151 

In such distinct reality, that sense 
Like that of touch embraces it, and sunbeams 
That burst triumphant through yon watery clouds 
"Will pierce the woods that shade it, till we seem 
To wander through the glades, and feel the arm 
About the waist, and head in sport reclined 
Upon the shoulder ; come we must not lose 
A moment of this hour ; its glory deepens ! 

[Exeunt. 



ACT V. 

A Night is supposed to elapse between the Fourth and Fifth Acts. 
The Scenes of this Act lie in the city and neighbourhood of Toledo. 



ACT V. 

Scene I. — The Battlements of the Alcazar of Toledo. — 
Stormy Sunrise. 

Enter Padilla, followed by Flokio. 

PADILLA. 

Not here ! Maria stole away at dawn, 
And I have search' d for her in vain to win 
One word of comfort e'er I go to battle ; 
Boy, have you seen your mistress ? 

I Seeing Flobio, 
FLORIO. 

She went forth, 
And, as I heard, met other noble ladies 
Bent on some pious care. 

PADILLA. 

Heaven bless her in it ! 
How happy am I that, 'midst fortune's storms, 
My little household, morticed in the rock 



156 THE CASTILTAN. [act v. 

That shall outlast the visible world, uplifts 
A pinnacle that, on its slender summit, 
Reflects unrisen dawn ! Yet I'd not miss 
Maria's valiant smile. Run with best speed, 
And pray her join me on this height made dear 
By last night's feast. 

[Exit Floeio. 

Those ponderous clouds that drew 
An awful splendour from last evening's sun 
Spread now a black pavilion, where the storm 
Waits to make noon-tide terrible. 

Enter Alphonso. 
padilla. 

My son, 
I must inquire at last, are you prepared 
For orphan' d ruin, which this battle lost 
Must bring on your young head ? You look serene 
As if on some heroic pastime bent, 
Contemplating its prize. 

ALPHONSO. 

Such a desire 
Throbs in my eager heart, and hopeful waits 
My father's sanction. 






scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 157 

PADILLA. 

What have I to grant 
Except my prayers ? 

ALPHONSO. 

The noblest of all boons, 
Tour leave to fight beside you. 

PADILLA. 

And so risk 
The only treasure of a doom'd man's widow ! 

ALPHONSO. 

Oh do not speak so sadly ! How the tales 

Which you made bright with shapes of boyish valour, 

While at your knee I stood, reproach me now ! 

Can I forget how children of the house 

Of the great Marquis of Cadiz achieved 

Scars from the infidel, e'er thirteen summers 

Flush' d in their cheeks ? How King Alphonso's heir 

At tenderer age, with eager heart, exchanged 

The rare felicities of princely youth 

For arid battle, and, expiring, strove 

To trace in bloody dust consoling words 

Whence might be sent assurance to his home 

That he died happy ? These, and dearer tales, 



mmHmni 



158 THE CASTILIAN. [act v. 

Which veterans oft with swimming eyes have told me, 
Of your own deeds before you reached my age, 
Proclaim me laggard. 

PADILLA. 

If with cheerful heart 
I went to this day's battle, you should share it ; 
But this will be my last. 

ALPHONSO. 

And should it be, 
Let me not miss the last occasion left me ; 
How shall I ever mix in glorious war 
"Without one living lesson from my father ? 

PADILLA. 

Are you prepared to die ? 

ALPHONSO. 

I think I am — 
Perhaps more fit than if my age were riper. 

PADILLA. 

Have your desire ; go to the priest who oifers 
Prayers for us in the chapel ; make confession 
As for your dying hour — it will not need 
To hold him long ; then hither bring the sword 



scene!.] THE CASTILIAN. 159 

I gave to you for sport, and I will gird it, 
And we will go together. 

ALPHONSO. 

Thank you, father ; 
I'll prove no hindrance. 

[Exit Alphonso. 
PADILLA. 

He has chosen bravely, 
And has a right to choose, for on his life 
Lies nothing that should make death fearful. 

[Shouts from the city. 

Shouts — 
Hollow and f reckless — 

In their pause I hear 
A deep, low ponderous sound, — the very sound 
Of the cathedral's funeral bell when heard 
On yonder mountains through the evening air 
In far-off years. 

[Shouts renewed. 

Those clamours surely rise 
From some unhallow'd revel :— dreadful pleasure 
At such a crisis ! 

Enter Florio. 

PADILLA. 

"Whence are those wild shouts ? 
What means that funeral knell ? 



160 THE CASTILIAN. [act v. 

FLORIO. 

I heard no knell ; 
The shouts rise from the veteran bands who share 
Among them heaps of gold and gems dispersed 
From the cathedral's chapels. 

PADILLA. 

From the shrines ? 
The treasures dedicate to Heaven profaned 
To pay my soldiers ! "Who has pull'd this curse 
On my last struggle ! Tell me, that my sword 
May deal swift justice on the guilty ! Speak ! 
I see you know the robbers — do not shiver — 
But speak, if you would live. 

FLORIO. 

A train of ladies 
Attired in shroud-like vestments, moving slow 
With spectral pageantry and saddest music 
Besought the saints to pity and forgive 
A deed compell'd by such sad urgency 
As will assure its pardon. 

padilla (grasping his sivord). 
Urgency ! 
How durst you — 






scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 161 



PLORIO 

Spare me — I have meant no ill. 

PADILLA. 

No ill ! — Stand up — You meant no ill — alas ! 

So soon corrupted by the sophist world 

To use its basest words ! You think those treasures 

Which fatal sacrilege has rifled, shows 

For idle gazers — nay perhaps have learn' d 

To hold the honor' d dead who heap'd them fools 

Thus to bestow their wealth beyond return 

Of mortal use. Oh child ! They are the offerings 

"Which prodigality of boundless love 

And grateful adoration, wanting words 

For utterance, sought amidst the precious things 

Earth holds, to speak in beauty to the future ; 

And on each gift a radiant angel waits 

To guard devotion's symbol ! I must fight, 

By these abandon' d! — you beheld the spoilers — 

Who led them ? Answer — or my sword shall search 

That quivering heart — speak ! — I implore you, speak ! 

Say — it was not Oh mercy ! 

[Shouts renewed. 
Enter Maria. 

PADILLA. 

Can it be ? 



162 THE CASTILIAN, [act v. 

You have no portion in this impious daring ? — 
Say so and bless ine ! 

MAEIA. 

I have acted boldly 
In firm belief that pardon will attend 
A deed which brings the treasures of the saints 
To aid a cause which, living, they had died for. 

PADILLA. 

So ! I am alone ; there is a gulf divides us — 
All lost! 

MARIA. 

How lost ? 

PADILLA. 

For this world ; but that's little ; 
I thought till now, however lapsed in duty 
To my anointed sovereign, I maintain' d 
My fealty to Heaven's eternal Law 
And Him who sits beyond it ; — that is gone — 
And death's no refuge. 

maria (kneeling). 

Kill me here, and live 
Assoil'd from guilt my desperate love brings on thee ! 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 163 

Do not transfix me with those eyes of stone, 
Bnt slay me ! 

PADILLA. 

Slay ! who spoke that dreadful word ? 
Slay ! you should live for ages to implore 
The saints for pardon ! Slay ! That word means death ; 
And, in that death, which I esteem'd a haven 
Of golden rest, the shadow of this hour 
Will follow with its vengeance. 

MARIA. 

Then divorce me ; 
Sever your lot from mine ; if I have sinn'd 
Beyond forgiveness, cast me off, and keep 
Your right to blessing,— so you let me kiss 
Your hand once more, and hear one gentle word 
Before we part for ever. 

PADILLA. 

No, Maria, 
I will not separate my lot from your's, 
Here or hereafter. Eise, and look with love 
Upon your blasted husband. 

MARIA. 

Blasted ! Spurn me. 

M 2 



164 THE CASTILIAN. [act v. 

padilla (raising and embracing Maria). 
No ; thus, once more, I join my soul with yours 
For ever. I remember when we stood 
Before the Priest to consecrate the state 
In which the holiest ecstasy of earth 
Enriches the immortal, and exchanged 
The common vow of constancy " till death 
Should part us," which gay brides and bridegrooms 

take 
And keep without reproach till parting comes 
According to the word, and then forget 
Their loss in other contracts which they seal 
With the same brief formality, and pass 
In decent round of duty, till the grave 
Sets the survivor free to wed again, 
As if the marriage of pure hearts had bonds 
For mortal life alone ; I felt your hand, 
Which had been tremulous in mine, grow firm 
And your eye flash' d a question on my soul 
Which from that soul I answer' d, — with disdain 
Of the poor limitation of a span 
For such great bargain, and a pledge that ours 
Was for both worlds. I own that bond and pray 
That I may share your doom. 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 165 

MARIA. 

I cannot weep, 
For my heart's iron. 

PADILLA. 

Do you not hear a knell 
As from a distant church ? 

MARIA. 

No — any sound 
Were better than the silence. 

PADILLA. 

A funeral knell ; 
Yet softer than before you came : its portent 
Seems fraught with solemn mercy. 

[Enter Alphonso gaily, with a helmet on, and sword in his hand. 
ALPHONSO. 

I am ready ; 
The troops wait in the Square. 

padilla (to Maria). - 

He goes with me. 



Oh not to-day !- 



PADILLA. 

Hold ! — not a word to him. 



] 66 THE CASTILIAN. [act v. 

MARIA. 

Oh not to-day ; all things in earth and sky- 
Are charged with terror ; see the river's mists 
Rise like huge shrouds to veil your battle-field 
And the air's fill'd with storm. 

PADILLA. 

"We must abide it ; 
My army will to-morrow be dissolved 
Unless to-day it conquers. 

[Girding the sword on Alphonso. 

Let me arm you ; 
The sword fits well ; embrace your mother. 

[Alphonso kisses Makia, who stands abstracted. 
ALPHONSO. 

Cold 
As marble ! Do not fear for me; I go 
To win my knighthood. 

MARIA. 

Gro — I dare not bless you. 

padilla (embracing Maria). 
Farewell, my dear one ; let me see you smile ; 
That's well ; be hopeful. Now, young soldier, tread 
With lightest foot, for there's no freer heart 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 167 

In all the thousands that share this day's peril 
Than that you carry. 

[Exeunt Padilla and Alphonso. — Trumpets below sound a salute. 

maria (alone). 
Grone — those trumpets greet them — 
Time rushes to its cataract. 

[Looking over the battlements on thick mists rising from the Tagus. 

Part, clouds, 
And let me see the squadrons of our foes 
To mate these phantoms of despair ! 

[Lightning. 

That flash 
Came at my call to show in jagged fire 
The plumes down-pouring from the mountain brow 
And streaming swords. 

[Lightning. 

Another flash — they are gone — 
Already in the narrow vale where Death 
Is busy, while the tempest veils his work. 
Oh for a moment's glance of yonder conflict 
The mists conceal, or for one battle sound 
Above the thunder ! 

[Storm rages nearer. 
Enter Lopez. 

LOPEZ. 

Madam, will you seek 



168 THE CASTILIAN. [act v. 

The chapel where the Friar with ceaseless prayer 
Implores the Saints to aid us. 

MARIA. 

Saints ! I am barr'd 
From intercession of the martyr' d dead 
And from all sacred roofs ; but here, in right 
Of my remorse and wretchedness, I cry 
To the bare Heaven for succour ! 

LOPEZ. 

Yet descend — 
The winds impel a deluge which will sweep 
In a few moments hither. 

MARIA. 

Let it come, 
And wrap me in its fury. 

LOPEZ. 

As my master pass'd 
He pray'd me, as if life hung on the word, 
To urge you to take shelter ; and my hand 
Prest as in final parting. 

[Weeps. 
MARIA. 

Good old servant — 



scene i.] THE CASTILIAN. 169 

You weep ; I thank you ; for your tears dissolve 
The iron at my heart, and bid it yield 
Obedience to its lord. Lead where you please. 

[Exeunt Maria and Lopez. Storm continues. 



170 THE CASTILIAN. [act v. 



Scene II. — The Tent of the Regent Adrian pitched on the 
eminence of the first Scene of the Second Act. — Storm 
raging. 

The Regent and G-onsalvo. 

ADRIAN. 

The elements fight for us, but is it certain 
That they will conquer ? If the battle hangs 
In doubt, I'll not be absent from the field, 
But brave the tempest. 



Be assured, Lord Cardinal, 
Of such a victory as shall quench for ever 
The smouldering embers of revolt : the veterans, 
Struck by the loss of the distracted Queen, 
Whose presence gilded treason, deem the storm, 
That dash'd against them at their onset, wing'd 
By Heaven to scourge rebellion, and forsake 
The accursed banners to accept the pardon 
Tour mercy offers ; while Toledo's craftsmen, 
Though stout of heart, unused to war, will falter, 
Confused by double terrors. 



scene ii.] THE CASTILIAN. 171 

ADRIAN. 

Yet I'll go forth— 
The storm subsides. 

GONSALVO. 

Here's one whose news may solve 
All doubts. 

Enter Soldier. 

GONSALVO. 

How stands the battle ? 

SOLDIER. 

'Tis a flight- 
When the storm burst in fury from the heights 
And our ranks swept down with it, panic seized 
Padilla's choicest soldiers, and they fled 
Or cried for quarter, while the heroic craftsmen 
Struggling with desperate valour at his call 
To flank us towards the mountain, in the marsh 
That stretches eastward at the Tagus side, 
Sinking knee-deep, were captured, or endured 
Our swords unflinching. 

ADRIAN. 

Do you bring me news 



172 THE CASTILIAN. [act v. 

Of the arch-rebel, in whose death alone 
This treason will expire ? 

SOLDIER. 

No — but the offer 
Of pardon his betrayer may assure 
For many traitors, with great largess, scatter'd 
By spies among the quailing troops, must bring 
Padilla to your judgment. 

ADRIAN. 

Judgment is pass'd — 
That he, and chiefs who fought with him, shall die 
"Within an hour of capture. Let the block 
Be planted on the loftiest rock that stands 
Direct before Toledo, that their deaths 
May freeze the hearts they snared. 

[Trumpets without. 

Those sounds proclaim 
Our victory complete ; their blood shall seal it. 

[Exeunt. 



-■- " 



scene in.] THE CASTILIAN. 1/3 



Scene III. — A Hall in the Alcazar of Toledo. — Padilla 
enters hastily, throws his helmet on a table, and sits 
beside it. 

PADILLA. 

All lost except these walls, which scarce will hold 
Eor time to breathe and die ! But where' s my son- 
He was nnharm'd beside me at the gate 
When I protected the last gallant craftsmen 
That sought its shelter ; — is he left without ? 
Or here before me ? Grant me strength to ask — 
Within there ! 

Enter Florio. 

PADILLA. 

Is he here ? 

FLORIO. 

Who? 

PADILLA. 

Who ! my boy — 
I mean Alphonso. 

FLORIO. 

I have not beheld him, 



174 THE CASTILIAN. [act v. 

But at the gate, a wounded soldier prays 

That you would hear his tidings, which, I think, 

Are of your son. 

PADILLA. 

Let him be tended hither : 
Now Grod grant courage ! 

[C aeillo is brought in, wearing the uniform of a common 
soldier, supported. 

You have tidings for me ; 
You are hurt — you are sinking — what a wretch am I 
To torture you with question ! Yet I implore you 
Utter one word — what know you of my son ? 

CARILLO. 

I am most happy that I caught these wounds 
In warding from his brow the swords that flash'd 
Around it, and so saved him. 

PADILLA. 

Then he lives ? 

CAEILLO. 

Lives, but borne captive. 

PADILLA. 

To the camp of Adrian ! 
Worse fate ! yet let me not be thankless to thee ! 



scene in.] THE CASTILIAN. 175 

I saw thee stem the flying crowd with valour 
Which, shared by chieftains' hearts, had changed the 

fortune 
Of this last combat ; what's thy name ? 

CARILLO. 

'Tis mangled. 

PADILLA. 

I know thee now ; thou art the youth Carillo 
Who bore my censure ; well hast thou redeem' d 
Thy honor ; oh that thou mayst live ! Help ! Help ! 



I die contented with thy praise ; may Heaven 
Preserve and bless thee !. 

[Me is lorne out. 



Be thy frailties pardon' d ! 
My child in Adrian's power ! Most cruel duty 
That chains me to my station when my life, 
With its last desperate energy, might serve 
To win his freedom ! Yet I must not leave 
The dreadful post I fill, whatever agonies 
Burn midst my heartstrings. I must suffer in it 
Till death release me. 



176 THE CASTILIAN. [act n 

Enter Ovando, hastily. 

OVANDO. 

Do you hear the cry 

That rends the city ? 

PADILLA. 

JN~o ; what cry ? 

OVANDO. 

For you ; 
The crowd, in terror's frenzy, call for him 
Who led them forth to slaughter ; they will see you. 

PADILLA. 

How — what said you ? 

OVANDO. 

That the infuriate people 
Demand your presence. 

PADILLA. 

I obey their call : 
Forgive me ; I was for a moment lost ; 
My son is yonder. 

OVANDO. 

Captive ? 



SCENE III.] 


THE CASTILTAN. 
PADILLA. 

So. 

OVANDO. 






I am 


heartstruck 


I was too rude. 


PADILLA. 






Not so ; I have no 


right 


To muse on private grief. 






Enter Tendtlla. 






TENDILLA. 






Forgive 


my errand ; 


It shames me. 


PADILLA. 

Pray speak on. 





177 



TENDILLA. 

The Council, met 
In desperate haste, have voted that you stand 
Twixt them and mercy, and require your name 
To act of resignation of your power 
As general of the army. 

[Tendilla produces a parchment while Padilla eagerly speaks. 
PADILLA. 

Will they take 
All office from me ? Strip me of my rank ? 



178 THE CASTILIAN. [act v. 

Cancel the bond of duty with command ? 
Dismiss me to the common herd of men 
Naked and lonely ? 

TENDILLA. 

It is even so. 



PADILLA. 



Give me the scroll. 



[He eagerly signs and returns tJiejcroll. 

There ! you have done your work 



Briefly and well. 



Forgive it. 



TENDILLA. 

My office was a sad one ; 



PADILLA. 

Forgive ! I thank you ; leave me to myself, 
But take my blessing with you. 

[Exeunt Tendilla and Ovando. 

I am free — 
I shall not die in vain. The Regent's offer 
Of pardons at the will of him who gives 
Padilla to the axe, shall be embraced 
This hour ; the holy father, who prays for us 
"Within, shall bless my mission and array me 
In reverend semblance, which will give free passage 



scene in.] THE CASTILIAN. J 79 

To Adrian's camp, to strike a noble bargain 
And to fulfil it gladly. 

Enter Flokio. 

flokio. 

Will you see 
My lady for a moment ? 

PADILLA. 

No ; not now ; 
Tell her I am busy — but quite calm — and soon- 
Yes ; very soon, shall meet her. 

[Exit Flokio. 

It is hard 
To leave her unembraced, yet on a moment 
Hangs the last issue. Heaven vouchsafe my son 
Life till I reach him, and I'll cast aside 
This robe of frail mortality, with joy 
More eager than, when flush' d in summer's noon 
With martial sports, I threw my vestments off 
To cleave the lucid Tagus. Youth's sweet spring 
Throbs in my veins as then ; I trample air. 

[Exit Padilla. 



N 2 



180 THE CASTILIAN. [act v. 



The Last Scene. — The Tent of the Regent. — The Storm di 
persing. — Adrian discovered with Officers of his staff. 

ADRIAN. 

Bring forth the noblest prisoners ; they shall first 
Atone their treason. 

[Mondeiar brought in guarded. 

"Who is this ? 

MONDEIAR. 

My name 
Is Mondeiar. 

ADRIAN. 

Do I, in you, behold the brother 
Of the arch-rebel's wife ? 

MONDEIAR. 

You see the brother 
Of an heroic lady who exults 
In the affection of the noblest soldier 
Castile has nurtured, — who, if his loyal heart 
Had not refused to listen to our prayers, 
Would have, ere this, been rebel to such end 



scene iv.] THE CASTILIAN. 181 

That you had pray'd him, on your knees, to take 
From you the anointing oil. I wait my doom. , 

ADRIAN. 

You see it ; yonder hillock bounds the course 
Of your life's journey. 

[Alphonso is brought in guarded. 

Who is this — a stripling ? 
Set him before me. Tou are very young 
To choose revolt ; it may be older traitors 
Constrain' d you ; if it was so, and you answer 
My questions frankly, I may show you grace. 
Who took you into battle ? 

ALPHONSO. 

My free heart, 
Following a glorious father. 

Enter Soldier. 

SOLDIER. 

My lord, a priest 
Who says that, if you grant his terms, he'll give 
Padilla to your justice, craves admission. 



Admit him instantly. 



182 THE CASTILIAN. [act v. 

ALPHONSO. 

A priest so vile ! 

ADRIAN (to ALPHONSO). 

Your speech, is bold, but your faint heart belies it ; 
You tremble and grow pale ; 'tis well; there's hope 
Your stubbornness may yield. 

Enter Padilla in the disguise of a Friar. 

ADRIAN. 

Are you the priest 
Who can betray Padilla ? 

PADILLA. 

I will place him 
Within your grasp, if you accept my terms. 

ADRIAN. 

Name them. 

PADILLA. 

First, pardon for these prisoners. 

ADRIAN. 

These ? 
Why care for them ? 



scene iv.] THE CASTILTAN. 183 

PADILLA. 

No matter ; 'tis my will. 

alphonso Recognising Padilla's voice). 
That voice ! Do not believe this Friar's rash promise ; 
Send him away, and let your sentence fall 
At once upon my life. 

PADILLA. 

Peace — lest I curse you. 

ADRIAN. 

Be silent, boy. 

PADILLA. 

He'll not offend 



ADRIAN. 

I pledge my word for their release ; what else ? 

PADILLA. 

Your promise that Toledo shall be free 

From spoil and insult, and her sons from vengeance. 

ADRIAN. 

If you consign Padilla to the axe, 

The great example shall not be obscured 

By meaner acts of punishment. 



184 THE CASTIL1AN. [act v. 

PADILLA. 

Enough. 
Thus I resign him to you. 

[Padilla throws of the Friar's dress. 
ADRIAN. 

'Tis himself — 
My knees sink under me as if constrain' d 
To bend before him. 

PADILLA. 

You will keep your word ? 



In all things. 



PADILLA. 

Let me clasp my son and die. 

[Alphonso rushes into Padilla's arms. 
ALPHONSO. 

Why did you rescue me ? 

PADILLA. 

To live for Spain. 

ADRIAN. 

Tour son ! If you would speak apart, you may. 

PADILLA. 

I thank you ; I can teach him nothing more : 



sckne iv.] THE CASTILIAN. 185 

He has seen Lis father's life ; he'll see his death ; 
He'll learn no other lesson. Let me gaze 
One moment on my glorious birth-place, clad 
In solemn beauty by the storm that yields 
Her towers to fill my vision's grasp. Toledo, 
The crown of Spain ; fortress of Christian faith, 
That from the ages of the mighty Goths, 
Hath kept thy liberties unblemish'd, take 
Fond benediction of thy dying son, 
John de Padilla, — who in death enjoys 
The sense that his last hour has served thee well, 
And, with strength of life's last rally, prays 
Duration for thy grandeurs while the rocks 
On which thou sitt'st in queenly state shall last, 
And glory for thy children while Castile 
Shall tower among the nations ! 

MARIA (without). 

I am his wife — 
Padilla' s wife — make way. 



'Tis my wife's voice 
Pray let her pass ; she will less trouble you 
Hereafter if she see me. 



186 THE CASTILIAN. [act v. 

ADRIAN. 

Let her pass ; 
She must not hold you long. 

PADILLA. 

Fear not ; she'll speed me. 
Enter Maria, who embraces Padilla. 

PADILLA. 

Forgive me that I stole away to save 
Our son ; he is pardon' d. 

MARIA. 

At what cost ? Tour life ! 

PADILLA. 

He would have laid down his young life to add 
An hour to mine, which I have nobly used, 
Not worth the purchase of a day, to save him 
To you for many years. 

MARIA. 

Ay ; many years. 

PADILLA. 

They will appear like moments when we meet 
Beyond those sunbreaks. 



scene iv.] THE CASTILIAN. 18/ 

MARIA. 

Then you think me pardon' d ? 

PADILLA. 

As certainly, Maria, as I stand 
Enfolding you, and presently shall die ; 
In the serenity that nils my soul 
I recognise assurance for us both 
Of full remission. 

adrian {to his Officers). 
Why was such a heart 
A traitor's? 

MONDEIAR. 

Do you dare to call him traitor ? 

PADILLA. 

Forbear, my brother ; when in arms, 'twas meet 
To hurl such imputation back, but now 
Meek resignation to the will of Him 
"Who calls me to His bar, alone should rule 
The parting throbs of life. I would not tax 
The Eegent's patience further; so, at once, 
Farewell. Rejoice to think that e'er yon cloud, 
That waits upon the sun, shall drink its light 



188 THE CASTILIAN. [act v. 

Our own Joanna's little face will shine 
Direct upon her father's. 

(To Adrian.) You'll give passage 
For these to their old home ? 

MARIA. 

Not there ! — the joys 
Our dear abode has nurtured, crush' d on earth, 
Will have no portion in etherial realms 
"Where we shall meet ; and I must henceforth breathe 
To dream of the Eternal. 

PADILLA. 

Think not, dearest, 
Our old delights will fail us ; no — I feel 
Upon this giddy margin of two worlds, 
That there is nothing beautiful in this 
The passion' d soul has clasp' d, but shall partake 
Its everlasting essence ; not a scent 
Of rain-drench' d flower, nor fleece of evening cloud 
Which blended with a thought that rose to Heaven 
Shall ever die ; but link'd with joy that drew 
Colour and shape from this fair world, shall shed 
Familiar sweetness through the glorious frame 
After a thousand ages. 



scene iv.] THE CASTILIAN. 189 

MONDEIAR. 

"Will you speak 
Nothing of public import ; — of your course ? 

PADILLA. 

Nothing — my course is of the past — afar 
Already I survey it, as I stand 
Assoil'd from mortal strife, in hope to win 
Eternal peace. So take at once farewell. 

MARIA. 

Let me go with you to the end. 

PADILLA. 

No farther ; 
The way I see is short. Farewell for this world.. 

[Exit Padilla, guarded. 

[Donna Maria remains standing in the centre of the 
scene, gazing after Padilla and supporting 
Alphonso. 

ADRIAN. 

Lead her away ; thence she will see him die. 

MARIA. 

Lead me away ! Think you I fear the block, 
The headsman, and the axe ? No — I behold 
A sainted hero turn those ghastly shapes 
To images of triumph ; while it lasts 



190 THE CAST1LIAN. [act v. 

These eyes shall drink his mortal greatness in ; 
Kneel down, iny son, and gaze with me ; you'll see 
Nothing so beautiful on this side heaven. 

[Alphonso falls on his knees before Mabia, but covers 
his face with his hands; she stands erect fixedly 
gazing in the same direction. 

ALPHONSO. 

Forgive me ; 'tis not possible. 

MARIA. 

He treads 
Lightly as on the evening when I changed 
Love's vow for his ; he lays his robe aside 
With airiest grace ; he turns his head — thank God 
I caught that look and know it met my own — 
He kneels before me ; while the sun sheds forth 
A slanting glory through the lurid clouds 
That falls upon him as a visible track 
Prom earth to heaven ; and now the headsman wields 
His feeble axe in air. 

ALPHONSO. 

It falls ? It falls ? 

MARIA. 

No — it has caught the sunbeam — and revolves 
Above him like a crown of glory sent 



scene iv.] THE CASTILIAN. 191 

To wreathe his head. He spreads his hands ; his soul 
Breathes prayer through parted lips that keep the hue 
They wore in freshest youth. 

ALPHONSO. 

And now ? 

MARIA. 

With God. 



THE END. 



5KADBURY -A>"D EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 549 106 A 



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PR 5546 
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